Beginnings
by sein Henker
Summary: Prequel to ″Reconciliation.″ Jack's first time with each of his subs.
1. Chapter 1

Title: Beginnings  
Summary: Prequel to ″Reconciliation.″ Jack's first time with each of his subs.  
Rating: AO for graphic sex, violence, and mature themes.  
Fic Word Count: 34,444  
Fic Pairings: Jack Harkness/Toshiko Sato, Jack Harkness/OFC, Suzie Costello/Toshiko Sato, Jack Harkness/Suzie Costello/Toshiko Sato, Jack Harkness/Owen Harper, Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones, Jack Harkness/Gwen Cooper/Rhys Williams  
Fic Contains: biting, blood play mention, blowjobs, bondage, caning, canon character death mention, casual drug use discussion, clamps, cunnilingus, Dom controlling a sub's clothing, exhibitionism, Fetish clothes, fingering, first time with a man, gags, handjobs, one night stands, orgasm denial, PIV sex, sensory deprivation (blindfolds), sexuality discussion, spanking, threesomes, vampire gloves, violence mention, voyeurism  
Fic Warnings: canon character death discussion, casual racism (outside of the main pairing), fetishization (outside of the main pairing), suicide contemplation, unwanted non-sexual touches (outside of the main pairing)

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Chapter Number: One  
Chapter Word Count: 6,404  
Chapter Pairings: Jack Harkness/Toshiko Sato, Jack Harkness/OFC  
Chapter Contains: bondage, spanking, one night stands, biting, orgasm denial, cunnilingus, voyeurism, fingering, clamps, exhibitionism  
Chapter Warnings: unwanted non-sexual touches (outside of the main pairing), casual racism (outside of the main pairing), fetishization (outside of the main pairing)

* * *

At the request of her hosts, Tosh had left everything but her knickers in a neatly folded pile by the door. She was now standing nearly-naked in a stranger's living room, watching a heavily tattooed man with still-bleeding lash marks on his back get fucked on the coffee table and trying not to pay too much attention to the staggered breaths and occasional yelping that came from behind the door to her left. Whatever discomfort she might have felt at being alone and exposed in a stranger's living room was diminished somewhat by the fact that there were bare breasts everywhere she looked, and a few submissives had even surrendered their boxers, in cases where that had preserved too much modesty, and were walking around with their cock and balls in plain view. Tosh at least had her genitals covered. Still, she felt vulnerable enough to wish she had a friend here. Her fellow submissives—particularly other Asian women—had spared her more than a little bit of heartbreak and humiliation over the years.

Tosh couldn't rely on the experiences of others now, though. She'd come here alone and she knew no one in this house. She'd only been in Cardiff for about seven weeks, and the man who'd directed her to this party had told her that he and his Mistress wouldn't be able to make it tonight. He was a white man and a one-time acquaintance who just happened to have unbuttoned his collar at lunch on a warm afternoon, to reveal just a hint of what Tosh recognized as immediately as a slave collar, so he was hardly someone Tosh would trust with her life anyway, but it would have been nice to have any familiar face here at all, so that at the very least someone could make introductions.

She also hadn't seen another Asian since she'd entered.

This wasn't London. She had to keep reminding herself of that.

Still, it made her nervous. Alone and Asian and nearly-naked in a room full of Dominants. She didn't want to leave, because she'd _miss_ this if she couldn't get established in Cardiff's kinky community, but it was going to be uncomfortable until she figured out whom she could trust. Tosh wasn't actually planning on getting fucked or flogged, tonight. She just wanted to meet people...

Well, she could use something to drink, anyway, and at least if she had food, she'd have something to do with her hands. She'd only taken a few steps toward the kitchen, though, before hands snaked around her waist and almost threw off her balance. She turned around quickly, and the white man who'd grabbed her looked a little bit put-off by that. Tosh forced a smile. He was fully clothed, like every Dominant in the place who wasn't currently engaged in a sexual act, and rather easy on the eyes. He was younger than Tosh, eyeballing it, though not by much. Brown hair. Green eyes. Hands that went right back to her waist as soon as she'd stopped moving.

"Haven't seen you around here before," he said.

"I just moved here from London," Tosh said with a frozen smile.

"Nice," he said. "So where are you actually from?"

"... London," Tosh said, and she took a broad step back, out of his reach, and then turned and continued to head for the kitchen.

The man smirked. "What?" he said, catching up with her in two seconds. "You got a Master in there?"

Tosh hesitated for just a second before the lie left her lips, and her hesitation gave him his answer.

He laughed a little, and they walked into the kitchen side-by-side. "What's your name, beautiful?"

Again, Tosh hesitated, but no one knew her here, so it was probably best to get the correct name circulating. "Toshiko," she said, and she said it the way that her parents had called it on playgrounds in Osaka, not the way that her teachers had read it in classrooms in London.

He blinked. "How about I call you—"

"There you are!"

Absolutely no one was looking for Tosh, so she didn't turn around until she felt a hand on her upper arm. Then she _did_ turn, ready to apologize for not being whomever it was she was expected to be, and saw a young black woman grinning at her, no more dressed than Tosh was.

The woman's smile didn't fall. "We were worried! I was just about to call you!" Tosh had never seen this woman before in her life, but she knew when she was being offered an out. "Come on! The girls are excited to meet you!"

"Great!" Tosh said. The woman's hand was on her wrist and she was leading Tosh away before the Dom could object.

She brought Tosh over to a corner where two other submissive women were standing, staring at the pair of them oddly. One was a heavily-freckled red-head who didn't looked much older than the woman who'd rescued Tosh. Tosh was guessing that they were _barely_ old enough to legally be here; maybe university students. The other woman was splitting the difference between their age and Tosh's. She was a tall and had nipple piercings, and her current state of undress left all the markings from a very good beating to her thighs clearly visible.

"You okay?" the girl who'd rescued Tosh asked her, letting go of her wrist. She was cute, though she really was too young for Tosh. She had thick, curly hair, and was the shortest of the group.

Tosh sighed. "Yeah," she said.

Her voice dropped to a whisper. "I saw you with Dane and I thought—well, it's no way to get introduced to the community. It's a shame he still gets invited to these things, but I guess he's never done anything _wrong_, exactly? He's just kind of..."

"I know the type," Tosh said.

"So you're not new to this?" the redhead said.

"Well, no..."

"New to Cardiff?" the other girl asked. "None of us have seen you around before."

"I just moved here from London," Tosh said. "My name's Tosh."

"Good to have you," the girl who'd brought Tosh over here said. "I'm Sarah. That's Hayley, and that's Helen," she nodded to the redhead and then to the tall girl. Sarah then smiled at Tosh somewhat apologetically. "Most of the Doms here's aren't like Dane, you know. There are lots of good single ones. Chris and I didn't work out, but he was good to me. And Niall can be a bit intense but if you can take it, he's great. And Greg's kind of old for me but maybe you'd like him, no offense. And then there's Tyler and Peter and—"

"Jack," Tosh said. She hadn't really meant to, but she'd been so surprised to see him walk past the kitchen—and she'd only seen him for the briefest second as he passed by the door—that it slipped out.

"Have you already met Jack?" Sarah asked. "Yeah, he's nice. I think he only does blokes, though."

Helen laughed a little. "Jack Harkness does whatever Jack Harkness wants that day." Well, that answered one question—It definitely was her boss that she'd seen, not just someone who looked like him—and raised about a dozen more.

"I got him to play with me, once," Hayley said shyly. "I'm a girl. He didn't seem to mind."

"How was he?" Tosh asked.

"Well," Hayley said, shifting a little, "The first thing he did was punish me, but I deserved it and he was nice enough about it."

"Was he very harsh?"

"He was fair," Hayley said, shrugging slightly. She looked as though it wasn't a particularly _fun_ memory for her, though. "He told me he goes easier on young subs..."

Tosh shifted a little. She was past the age where she could get leniency for being a 'young sub.'

Why did she care, though? Jack was her boss. Jack was the only thing that stood between her and a life sentence in a terrorist internment camp. It was a _really bad idea_ to complicate that relationship even further, even if he did have a nice smile.

Still, it was valid for her to want to know about his reputation. You could tell a lot about a Dominant's personality by how they treated their subs. If Jack got off on power-trips, mind-games, and humiliation, that was not something that Tosh was likely to escape as his professional subordinate, even if she never became his sexual submissive. Sarah had called him nice, though. That was a good sign...

"Details!" Sarah said. "What'd he do? What'd _you_ do? You can't just tell us you've been punished by Jack Harkness and let it be with 'He was fair.'"

"Is Sarah interested?" Helen asked, smirking.

"Sarah is curious," Sarah said.

"Look, it was stupid," Hayley said. "It was last October, when Greg hosted and it was really cold out. Well, I saw Jack slip out to the back yard and I thought, well, if I want him alone—and, he was never going to notice me if we _weren't_ alone—there was my chance. So I sucked it up and followed him. It was dark so it wasn't like the neighbors were going to see. And it was cold, but I wasn't dying or anything, so I bounced around and hung off him a little bit, and he winked at me and smiled and even touched me a couple of times, to warm me up or even just to play around. So it was going well. But he _would not_ get off the phone, and he was just 'uh-huh'ing the person on the other end. He kept sort of glancing at me and then glancing at the door, though, like he wanted me to wait for him inside, but I thought that maybe if I did that, he'd think I was weak or something, so I stayed, but I just kept getting colder and colder and more and more frustrated until..." She worried her lower lip between her teeth. "I snatched the phone out of his hands?" It wasn't actually a question, but she said it as though she herself couldn't quite believe she'd done it.

All three of them gasped. "Why would you think that was okay?" Sarah said, trying to whisper but not managing it very well.

Hayley shook her head and shrugged, blushing furiously. "I knew it wasn't. I wasn't thinking. I..." she sighed. "I wasn't thinking and I shouldn't have done it. That's all he'd want me to say. And if I _didn't_ know that it was stupid when I did it, I knew a second afterwards. He just _looked_ at me, and it wasn't even a glare, exactly, but it was like he'd just whipped me without touching me. The first word I could say was 'Fuck.' I was like 'Fuck. I'm sorry!' and he just held out his hand for the phone and I gave it back and he said 'I'm sorry, could you hang on a minute?' into the phone, and I'm standing there shivering wondering what he's gonna do to me, and he puts the phone down and takes his coat off and gives it to me, and for a second I just hold it and stare at it and he's like 'Put it on,' and he doesn't _sound_ really angry but he still looks like I'm going to be feeling this for a month, so I quickly pulled the coat on and then he pointed to that bench Greg has out there and I just sat there and waited while he finished the longest phone call of my life..." She took a deep breath. "And then he hung up the phone and gave me that look again and I started to apologize and then he told me to 'Be quiet and come here,' so I did and he grabbed me by the neck the way they do when you're in _really big trouble_ and I'd never actually been in really big trouble before so I was kind of freaking out..."

"Well, yeah," Helen said. "It wouldn't be my first time in big trouble, and _I'd_ be freaking out."

Hayley swallowed hard. "He brought me inside... into Greg's office, because all of the other rooms were taken, and he just said 'Hayley, calm down. I won't do anything you can't take,' and that stopped me dead because he didn't sound as angry any more and I honestly hadn't realized he knew my name. And he asked me what my safeword was and I told him, and he slipped his coat off me and he said something like 'I actually admire submissives who go after what they want, but you crossed a line and I think you know that,' and I did so I just nodded, and he pulled down my knickers and told me he was going to spank me. He actually surprised me by getting up on Greg's desk and spanking me over his knee; I'd expected him to just push me against a wall. Still hurt like Hell, but I can't exactly blame him for that. I deserved it, and any other Dom would have done the same and maybe worse."

None of them pressed her for further elaboration on the spanking. Tosh was grateful that Hayley had given them that much. It was not fun for any sub to talk about times when they'd been punished.

"And then... He held me for a little bit and calmed me down and made me promise to be good, then he fucked me, and he was gentle and he tried to keep the weight off places where I was sore, and... it was nice, but that was it. I mean, he talks to me sometimes, but we haven't... It was just once. But there you go. He's not gay."

"So he's nice," Tosh said. "And his reputation is good. Good."

Sarah smirked. "What's it to you, anyway? You've only been in town five minutes. Are you really on the hunt already?"

"No!" Tosh said. "He's just... my boss."

"No way," Sarah said. "What do you do?!"

And that was when Tosh realized that Jack had never told her just how much she was allowed to reveal to other people. There'd never been any need. Tosh didn't have friends. Did Jack have a cover story going around? There was the tourism office, but they never even pretended that was open. "It's nothing," Tosh said, shrugging slightly. "Just some boring government thing."

"Called it," Helen said. "He's CIA."

"No!" Tosh said. "First of all, it's a boring _British_ government thing—"

"That's exactly what you'd say if you _were_ an American with a fake accent," Sarah said, and Tosh didn't think _she_ was any clearer than Tosh was about how serious they were being. They were all smiling, but if Jack hadn't told everyone a convincing cover story, then they must have wondered.

"And what sort of boring _British_ government official carries a gun everywhere?" Hayley said.

"I'm his direct subordinate and _I_ don't!" Tosh said. She looked down at her own body. "Clearly."

"Jack does, though," Hayley said. "I saw it that night."

"Yeah," Helen said skeptically, "I'm sure he forgot to take the loaded gun out of his coat before he gave it to a teenager."

"I didn't find it in his coat!" Hayley said. "He got naked to fuck me, you know. I saw it when he was taking his clothes off."

"I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation," Tosh said.

"Yeah," Sarah said. "He's CIA. Perfectly reasonable."

"He's not CIA," Tosh said.

"What do you do, then? If it's so boring, just tell us."

"It's hard to explain," Tosh said.

"CIA," all three other girls said.

Tosh sighed.

Then they all laughed. Tosh wasn't sure why.

"Are you three playing nicely with the new girl?" a woman in cargo pants and a v-neck asked, looking directly at Sarah though she'd addressed the question to all three of them.

Sarah blushed. "Of course we are, Jane!"

Jane's eyes moved over Sarah's body slowly, which Sarah didn't seem to mind in the slightest, and then Jane turned to Tosh and held out her hand. "Jane Knockton." Right. The Dommes. Tosh didn't usually... but then, she also did, sometimes. It seems liked Sarah might have some insight, there, and it might be worth asking for it.

"Toshiko Sato," Tosh said.

The Domme smiled. "If you need anything at all, or if these three aren't making you feel completely welcome, tell me."

"I will," Tosh said. "Thank you."

She walked away, and Tosh spent another hour and a half hanging around Sarah, Hayley, and Helen, getting the dirt on various Doms and Dommes and even being introduced to several of them. They all picked up on Tosh's hints that she wasn't looking for a hook-up, tonight. She saw Jack a few more times, but she didn't speak to him. One-by-one, though, her new friends left. Helen's master found them, introduced himself, and then quickly informed Helen that it was time to go. Hayley slipped off to seduce an unsuspecting Dom. Sarah stuck with Tosh for a while, but then Jane asked Tosh if she could borrow Sarah for a little bit, and Tosh could hardly have refused.

Tosh found herself alone again, and she finally got something to eat. There were only snacks laid out, of course, but that was fine. Tosh's appetite still hadn't fully recovered from her time in prison, so snacks tended to fill her up no matter how hungry she'd been.

She was nibbling on popcorn when Jack said her name. She spun around quickly, and he smiled at her, with just a hint of playful suspicion. "Have you been avoiding me?"

"No!" Tosh said quickly. "I just... didn't want to bother you..."

"You wouldn't have been bothering me," Jack said, shaking his head. He looked at her oddly for a minute. "I'd have been happy to introduce you to some people and give you a feel for the community, you know." He smirked. "I could have helped you find this place, too. Did you take the bus?"

Tosh nodded, but smiled a little. "It wasn't that hard. I'm from London, remember?"

Jack shrugged. "Still... I can give you a lift home, if you want, whenever you're ready to go."

"I wouldn't want to trouble you," Tosh said.

"You wouldn't be troubling me," Jack said.

"Did you come here to give me a lift home?" Tosh asked, already knowing the answer.

"No," Jack said. "I came here to have some fun with a nice boy, but plans change. That isn't a trouble, it's life."

He talked her into going out into the living room with him and sitting down, and they chatted about various things and laughed over the odds of running into each other here. He told her that he did not, in fact, have a cover story going around, and most of Cardiff suspected something was up. He didn't particularly mind them _suspecting_ things, as long as they didn't _know_, so his general method was to just shrug off all questions.

And Jack looked. He definitely looked. It wasn't that surprising, really. She was a nearly-naked submissive woman, so close to him that he could have leaned over and kissed her quickly and effortlessly. He looked. Tosh didn't mind.

When he realized that Tosh had noticed him looking, he smiled and commented that she was looking much healthier. He was right, of course. She hadn't even been in that camp for two weeks, but it had been long enough for Tosh to drop twenty pounds that she was still working on gaining back, and her irregular sleeping schedule, stress, and generally unsanitary conditions had left her feeling ill constantly. It was taking time to recover from all of that. She was a bit less pale now than she had been when Jack first brought her to Wales, and a haircut, new clothes, food whenever she wanted it, access to a shower, and some quality time with a waxing kit had done wonders for both how she she looked and how she felt.

That wasn't why he was looking, though, and they both knew it. Tosh blushed a little.

"Sorry," Jack said. "I'm your boss. If you don't want me to look—"

"No," Tosh said, "It's fine. Really fine—fine, really. I just..." She shrugged. "I thought you said you came here for a boy?"

Jack smirked a little. "I also said that plans change."

Tosh shifted a little. "Do you want to?"

"Do you?" Jack said, raising his eyebrows.

"It could make things complicated, couldn't it?″ Tosh said.

"It doesn't have to, if we don't let it," Jack said. "I avoid complicated as rule, even in situations where it wouldn't be nearly this problematic. I'm not looking for a girlfriend. We could just... have fun, as two people who trust each other and share a common interest."

Tosh hesitated. She hadn't come here looking for a hook-up, but that was because she hadn't expected to know or trust anyone. She did know Jack, and she was already putting more trust in him than she'd ever put in anyone else in her life. Honestly, letting him dominate her didn't even seem like it counted as _escalating_ their relationship, at this point, it was just changing it slightly.

And Tosh didn't want to get attached either. She didn't date Doms. A Dom who didn't date subs was ideal, in that respect. "If anything long-term happened," Tosh said, "It would actually make things _less_ complicated, in some ways." She smiled slightly. "I wouldn't have to hide my job from you."

Jack smiled too. "No," he said. "You wouldn't. And I wouldn't have to dodge questions about why I carry a gun."

"I just worry..." Tosh said, squirming a little, "That if I ever made you mad..."

"I would _never_ exploit the situation with UNIT for leverage in personal matters," he said quickly. He held her gaze. "I have no intention of ever sending you back to them. Don't even worry about that. I will deal with any issues that arise exactly the way that I would if you were any other sub... If you want that. If you trust me."

"I do..." Tosh said. "Trust you, I mean. And want to, I think, but how would it work when we were at work? Would you want to..."

"We could do this without anything at work changing," Jack said. "Or things could change, a little, if you're into that. But you'd have to take work seriously, still."

"Of course," Tosh said. "I mean, I don't stop taking things seriously just because there's sex involved. If a Dom told me to cook dinner, I wouldn't burn down the kitchen because it was just sex."

Jack smiled. "I would hope not," he said. Then he looked a her a bit more seriously. "If we do it, we have to stop the second it becomes a hazard."

"Of course."

They stared at each other a minute.

"What would you say," Jack said, "If I told you that I wanted to tie you up, right here, cover you in clamps, and lick you and fuck you in front of everyone?"

Tosh blushed, a little. That was a Hell of a way to be introduced to half the people here. "I'd tell you that my safeword is 'Hirano-ku,' and I won't struggle so please be forgiving with the ties."

He pulled the ties out of his pockets. They were soft silk. Tosh was glad to see that. She offered him her wrists, and he tied them together quickly and expertly, and not too tightly. He lifted them over her head, then _behind_ her head, and used the second tie to attach them to the table behind the sofa, where several plants were sitting.

"You'd better not struggle," Jack said with a smile. "Knock anything over and _Mike_ will beat your ass if I don't."

"I'll remember that," she promised. She would, too. The dominant member of the couple hosting them had biceps that Tosh didn't think she could wrap both of her hands around Jack was... Jack. She wasn't in the mood for a beating from either of them.

She arched up a little to help Jack pull her knickers off, then sat back down and let Jack nudge her knees apart.

He leaned down and kissed her on the lips, first. She let his tongue into her mouth and allowed herself a few minutes to enjoy being kissed and touched again. It had been months since she'd had any more intimate touch than a handshake, and she'd needed it more desperately than she'd allowed herself to admit. Jack had wrapped his arms around her when showing her how to use a gun—hardly a romantic touch, just the easiest way of correcting her movements—and she had nearly grabbed onto him to stop him from letting go and stepping away from her, when he finished.

Maybe she should have actually done it. Right now it didn't seem like he'd have minded terribly.

She meant to sigh, but instead she moaned, and he broke the kiss and smiled slightly, then stopped and frowned thoughtfully.

He leaned in and whispered in her ear: "Have you really been okay since I got you out of the detainment camp?"

He could tell how lonely she'd been. It wasn't just the moan, either. He'd probably picked up on all of those little things at work that she'd hoped he'd missed.

She swallowed hard. "I appreciate what you've done," she said calmly, "and I'm getting better."

"That isn't what I asked," Jack said, just a touch louder but without any real anger in his voice. "I've got teeth. You're bound and naked. I am not afraid to take advantage of this situation."

"I'm not afraid of you taking advantage of this situation," Tosh said.

And then his teeth were on her throat, clamping down. She gasped. He bit harder. She let out a staggered breath. He bit _harder_. She whined a little, and finally he let up and met her eyes coolly.

"I'm sorry," she breathed.

"It's fine," he said, whispering into her ear again. "Are you okay?"

"Yes," Tosh said, before it even occurred to her to wonder if he meant with the scene or in general. Her answer was the same either way.

"Have you _been_ okay since you left the camp?"

Tosh thought about it, and he let her. "Yes," she said. He'd wanted a definitive answer, and that _was_ the definitive answer. She hadn't been good, but she also hadn't been bad, so she'd been okay. And she was getting better.

He smirked a little. "So are you always this needy, then?"

Tosh blushed. "Not always, no."

He laughed a little, right into her ear. "Too bad." He kissed the spot he'd bitten a moment before, then kissed down her throat, to over her chest, and across her left breast. He took her left nipple between his teeth and her breath caught, but he didn't apply any pressure. She felt no pain.

Then he pulled back and out came the first pair of clamps. They went, quite predictably, to her erect nipples.

Tosh could take a set of clover clamps, though. These were tight enough to be painful as soon as Jack put them on, but Tosh didn't make a sound.

Then a second set came out, and Jack applied those to the tops of her breasts, instantly creating dual aches that were indistinguishable from each other within seconds.

Tosh took a deep breath.

″If a single clamp comes off your body before I want it to, you're not coming,″ Jack warned.

Tosh nodded.

Two more clamps. Jesus. How many had Jack brought? God damn men's trousers and their bottomless pockets. At least this pair wasn't clover clamps. They went to her still-pink throat, where they were nice and snug and they'd leave marks that would still be visible in the morning. And possibly in the morning after that. At least she had a few shirts that would hide them.

He pressed a kiss to her stomach before he settled in between her legs. Then he laid a few more quick kisses and one gentle, non-punishing nibble on her right thigh, then looked up at her and said "Keep your eyes open," before he finally ran his tongue over her cunt.

Her breath hitched. That was better than hugs. More intimate, too, and just what she'd needed in a lot of ways. She'd only touched _herself_ twice in all the weeks since she'd gotten out of the camp, and both times she'd been so tired that the experience had ultimately been fairly unsatisfying.

Two more clamps came out, and he fixed those to her thighs before returning his mouth to her cunt.

A few more slow, sensual licks and she was already squirming and struggling to keep her breathing steady. Could she moan? Did Jack like his girls noisy? She should have asked. Since she hadn't, she tested the waters a little with a small, quiet moan that he'd be more likely to reprimand verbally than with pain, if he wanted her silent. He didn't object, or even really acknowledge it, and she felt slightly more comfortable letting out a much louder moan as he began to suck on her clit.

The pain in her breasts had already turned cold, which meant that, for now, it was tolerable. It was going to be _agony_ when he took those clamps off, and that made Tosh feel excited.

He moaned back teasingly, making his lips vibrate around her and dragging and embarrassingly high-pitched sound out of her, then he went back to licking her, faster now, flicking it over her clit quickly and flooding her with pleasure as she wiggled in her seat and moaned. Every wiggle made the clips on her thighs, twist her skin slightly, sending a new wave of pain up her legs.

People were staring. At least two Doms and one submissive in her view were not making a secret of the fact that they were looking, and she had a feeling that there were a few more people out of her line of sight who were enjoying the view. Jack had told her to keep her eyes open, and even though he wouldn't be able to see whether or not she obeyed him, other people would see, and he would almost certainly be informed of it if she disobeyed. The way that her arms were tied was restricting her ability to move her head, so she had no choice but to look straight ahead and be keenly aware of their voyeurs. She felt her cheeks burn and she took a deep breath, but just as she tried it, her muscles contracted and she let out another moan without meaning to. Her eyes shut for a second, but she caught herself and opened them again while it could still be excused as a long blink. No one said anything to Jack, and she listened to herself pant and heard and felt him moan again and she knew exactly what he was doing and she was glad that this was how he'd started.

He worked his fingers into her, first one and then two, and scissored them inside of her for a moment while he kept licking her clit. She was glad he'd thought to stretch her. It had been a while since she'd been fucked, and even as wet as she was, him pushing right in would probably have hurt. He worked in a third and a forth finger, and eventually even his thumb, but he didn't go in to his knuckles, let alone past them. If he'd asked to fist her, she'd have allowed him to, even though she'd been tight when they'd started. He hadn't asked, though. He loosened her up, then pulled his fingers out of her and devoted his full attention to using his tongue on her.

Hayley walked into the living room looking disappointed. She hadn't been as lucky as Tosh had tonight, apparently. She caught Tosh's eye and smirked, and Tosh smirked back for a second before she came hard and moaned. Jack slowly dragged his tongue over her throbbing cunt one last time, and then yanked the clamps on her thighs off with no warning before he popped back up and smiled at her, then began stripping away his own clothes.

"Your eyes are open," he said. "Good."

"I can take harder commands than that," Tosh said, smiling up a him shyly. Her cheeks were still burning.

"Someday soon," Jack whispered before kissing her neck again.

"You promise?" Tosh asked.

"Yeah," Jack said, removing the last of his clothes. He straddled Tosh and then entered her, not causing her any pain because he'd stretched her and he was careful, but filling her up with his thick cock and riding her in front of a dozen hungry eyes. He rocked his hips, pulling nearly out of her and then thrusting back into her. His hands wrapped around her sides and he looked her directly in the eyes as both of their breathing got heavy. He kissed her again, then bit her lip slightly as he pulled away. He didn't hurt her as badly as he could have, but there was a threat and a power behind the bite. They didn't have a contract and they'd done only the bare minimum of negotiations, so he was treating her very gently for now, but she could feel the restraint in his touches and see that familiar, exciting glint in his eyes. He could do so much more, with time and permission. She intended to give him plenty of both.

It made sense. _Jack_ made sense, and she was so glad to have run into him here. She felt safe with him, and protected by him, and she was already experienced at trusting his judgment and taking his orders even when she didn't understand his orders. The conditions were perfect. It would change things at work, but she'd still live alone, and since Jack said he wasn't looking for a girlfriend, he'd probably limit his involvement with her outside of work. Normally, a long-term arrangement with a Dom meant she had her usual amount of freedom at work, but he situation changed in her off-time. This was just the opposite. Things would change at work, but she'd still be able to go home and unwind and have a certain healthy amount of freedom. That could even be better, in some ways.

They were so close. Her breasts were pressing against his bare chest, offering her considerably more cover than she'd had while he was going down on her, but moving the tight clips on her skin and making her whimper every now and again as a the cool pain flashed deeper and hotter as the clip moved. The noises that Jack's cock was getting out of Tosh were even needier and the more pathetic than the noises that his tongue had gotten out of her. She caught herself whining "Oh god—please—" in a higher pitch than she usually spoke at, but he bit her lip again to warn her to quiet down, then slipped his tongue back into her mouth to help her obey him.

She kept her eyes open, still. She noticed Dane on the edge of her peripheral vision, white as a sheet. Was it them, or had something happened? He was staring at them with wide eyes. It was them. If Tosh had to guess, he wasn't terribly fond of the idea of fighting Jack for a sub, and was very afraid that his earlier interactions with Tosh had picked a fight with Jack without him knowing. Tosh didn't actually have any intention of mentioning it to Jack, though, unless he asked. It was nice to see Dane scared anyway.

Tosh met Jack's eyes again, and he thrust into a few more times and then came inside of her just a few seconds before she came. They held each other's gazes as they orgasmed, and then they sat there panting together. His grip on her loosened a little bit, but he didn't release her for several seconds, then he plucked every clip off her body in the order he'd put them on her. Tosh gasped and whined as the blood returned to those areas of skin and immediately _ached_. Every throb let her know that she'd be claimed and she'd have the bruises to prove it for several days.

He stood up, leaving her completely exposed and still panting. He moved behind the table and untied her wrists.

"Now what?" Tosh asked, wondering if Jack would bring her back to the base. She'd figured out weeks ago that he lived at the base, at least most of the time. He was there at all hours and he had a toothbrush in the bathroom. It wasn't difficult to work out. She'd never seen where he slept, though. If he had a bed stashed somewhere, Tosh had never seen it. It was possible that he had more comfortable living arrangements elsewhere, but Tosh couldn't imagine that they got much use. In either case, what would he do to her if she went home with him that night? They'd have more time to negotiate during the car ride, and he would almost certainly have toys at home. They could have some real fun, then...

"Now, I give you that lift home," Jack said. Tosh must have looked disappointed, because he chuckled a little. "And you get an a lesson in patience. Looks like you need it." He kissed her forehead and smiled at her, then whispered, "We'll negotiate tomorrow, then the real fun can start."


	2. Chapter 2

Title: Beginnings  
Summary: Prequel to ″Reconciliation.″ Jack's first time with each of his subs.  
Rating: AO for graphic sex, violence, and mature themes.  
Fic Word Count: 34,444  
Fic Pairings: Jack Harkness/Toshiko Sato, Jack Harkness/OFC, Suzie Costello/Toshiko Sato, Jack Harkness/Suzie Costello/Toshiko Sato, Jack Harkness/Owen Harper, Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones, Jack Harkness/Gwen Cooper/Rhys Williams  
Fic Contains: biting, blood play mention, blowjobs, bondage, caning, canon character death mention, casual drug use discussion, clamps, cunnilingus, Dom controlling a sub's clothing, exhibitionism, Fetish clothes, fingering, first time with a man, gags, handjobs, one night stands, orgasm denial, PIV sex, sensory deprivation (blindfolds), sexuality discussion, spanking, threesomes, vampire gloves, violence mention, voyeurism  
Fic Warnings: canon character death discussion, casual racism (outside of the main pairing), fetishization (outside of the main pairing), suicide contemplation, unwanted non-sexual touches (outside of the main pairing)

* * *

Chapter Number: Two  
Chapter Word Count: 6,042  
Chapter Pairings: Suzie Costello/Toshiko Sato, Suzie Costello/Jack Harkness/Toshiko Sato  
Chapter Contains: fetish clothes, cunnilingus, bondage, PIV sex, spanking  
Chapter Warnings: racial fetishization mention, misogyny mention

* * *

Voicemail. Fucking voicemail, _now_?

″Tosh,″ Suzie said into the phone breathlessly. ″My dearest friend in the whole entire world, this is _really_ important, so if you could answer your fucking phone, that would be fantastic.″ Suzie hung up and tapped the phone against her lips. The sad thing was, Tosh _was_ Suzie's dearest friend in the world. Suzie had fled London and never looked back, even for the people she liked. She _couldn't_ look back. It wasn't safe.

She sighed. How desperate did she have to get before she called Jack? The contact list in her mobile consisted of various businesses and four actual human beings. Two were the reason Suzie was in this mess, and they were rushing to the airport so that they could barely catch the one direct flight from Cardiff to Edinburgh that would leave that day. They probably wouldn't be answering their phones, and if by some miracle they were, there was no way they could come back to help Suzie out of this situation. Suzie didn't really blame them for that. Tosh wasn't answering her phone either, for some inadequate reason. It probably wasn't fair to blame Tosh for that, since there were lots of good reasons why she might not be answering her phone, but Suzie was finding that she _did_ blame Tosh for it, nevertheless. The fourth person, the last resort if Suzie was truly desperate, was Jack Harkness.

Well, he'd help her, if he actually answered his phone. He'd laugh and he'd probably tease her about it, but he'd help her. As far as that went, though, _Suzie_ would laugh and tease any friend that called her in this situation.

Maybe Tosh was with Jack. It was likely. Tosh wasn't working, because if Tosh were working, Suzie would be. Tosh didn't have a social life. She had Jack. Suzie wasn't sure _how_ she had Jack—the Cardiff kinky community seemed to think they were a couple, but in every context outside of kink, Jack and Tosh themselves seemed to have missed that memo. Still, Tosh didn't date much and Suzie strongly suspected that Tosh had fewer human contacts in her mobile than Suzie did. If Tosh was busy with something other than work, there was a good chance it was Jack.

That thought at least justified giving Jack a call. If he answered and Tosh wasn't there, Suzie would decide what to do on impulse.

She took a deep breath and called Jack.

He answered on the second ring. ″Hey,″ he said. ″How are you?″

″Not great,″ Suzie admitted. ″Is Tosh with you?″

″Yeah, she is,″ Jack said. Thank god. ″I'm sorry to hear that you're having a bad day. Anything I can do to help?″

″You can give Tosh your mobile and let me talk to her.″

″Tosh isn't really in an position to be talking to anyone. Can I take a message?″

″Scene's over, Jack!″ Suzie snapped. ″Take whatever is in her mouth out of it and give her the fucking mobile.″

″Shit,″ Jack said. ″What's wrong?″

″I want to talk to Tosh.″

Jack sighed. ″Hold on.″

Jack put the phone down, and Suzie heard movement and, at one point, ″Ow! Not like that! To the left!″ from Tosh. Then Jack picked up the mobile and, after several seconds, Tosh said ″Hello?″

″Don't judge me,″ Suzie said.

″I'll try...″ Tosh said.

Suzie would take it. ″I need you to bring me some clothes. Not to my flat, to a hotel.″ Suzie told her exactly which hotel, and its general location.

″Okay,″ Tosh said. ″I'll do it, but how'd you end up in a hotel without any clothes?″

″It's a funny story, actually,″ Suzie said with no humor in her voice. ″I went on a playdate with this lovely couple whom I've played with a couple of times before. Funny thing: she and I have the exact same long black coat. We met at this hotel. I wore my fetish clothes under that long black coat. She didn't wear a coat. She was wearing a sweater. We were playing and things were going well and then they got a phone call telling them that Peter's dad is on his death bed in Edinburgh. They called the airport and it turned out that if they left quickly, they could just make the flight there today. So they got dressed in a hurry and I got in the shower to wash the chocolate syrup off my thighs and when I got out of the shower, the coat was gone. Lily must have grabbed it thinking it was hers. I can get it back from her later, so it wouldn't really be a big deal, except that there is no way in Hell I am leaving this room wearing nothing but thigh-highs and a corset.″ Suzie sighed and lightly beat her head against the wall behind her. ″I can't even find my g-string. I can't imagine they took that, though. It's just hidden itself somewhere for the cleaning staff to find.″

″Oh.″ Tosh said. ″Right. It happens to the best of us. I'll just... Stop by ASDA and find something in your size and bring it to you?″

″Room 151,″ Suzie said, and she told Tosh her sizes. ″I'll pay you back! You're a life-saver. Oh, and tell Jack that any stupid comments he wants to make about this, he can make to you. I'm not in the mood.″

″Sure,″ Tosh said. She hung up, and Suzie laid back on the bed, naked and frustrated in more ways than one and really looking forward to getting home and salvaging what was left of her Saturday with wine and a movie and probably some ice cream. Maybe a cigarette. Suzie officially didn't smoke anymore, but a cigarette would feel good today. All the things that were bad for her. She probably didn't have much of a right to be mopey. Shit, Peter's dad was dying, and he didn't seem to be as happy about that as Suzie would be to hear that her own father was finally dropping dead. She wasn't even having the worst day out of the three people who'd checked into this hotel room, let alone out of everyone in the world. Still. She'd been denied the hot threesome she'd wanted, and she saw very little harm in indulging in other ways to make up for it.

She was still naked on the bed when she heard a knock on the door.

Thank god.

She peeked through the hole to make sure that it really was Tosh, and then she hid behind the door as she let Tosh in.

″I got here as quickly as I could,″ Tosh said. ″Sorry I didn't answer when you called _me_.″

Suzie smirked. ″I got the feeling that _Jack_ was the one who should apologize for that.″

″No,″ Tosh said sternly. ″Sometimes subs _can_ be held responsible for our own decisions and not get spanked for it. I was as much a part of that scene as Jack was.″

Suzie held up her hands. ″Fine. Sorry. It doesn't really matter.″ Suzie started looking through the bags. A bra, some knickers, flip-flops and a floral-print dress. It was cheap and not at all Suzie's style, but it would get Suzie home with minimal humiliation and no public indecency charges. ″I'm sorry that I ruined _your_ fun too, but I didn't have a lot of options.″

″It's fine,″ Tosh said. ″You didn't really ruin it, you just delayed it a bit. It's not like Jack or I had plans later on.″

″So how much of an asshole was Jack about all this?″ Suzie asked, pulling on the bra.

″He feels sorry for you,″ Tosh said. She smirked. ″He said I should offer to eat you out to make you feel better.″

″Oh, that's _just_ what I want,″ Suzie said sarcastically. ″A charity-fuck from someone's else's sub.″

″Suit yourself,″ Tosh said. ″I wouldn't actually mind doing it. I haven't had sex with a woman in ages.″

Suzie looked over at Tosh. Suzie was holding the knickers, but she hadn't put them on yet.

Tosh shrugged. ″All I'm saying is that this isn't how either of us wanted to spend our afternoon. I think Jack's right that we should salvage it, if we can.″

Suzie smirked. ″And what does Jack get out of all of this?″

″Me in a slightly better mood when I go back to him?″ Tosh said. ″Not having to be burdened with thoughts of your sad situation?″

Suzie rolled her eyes. ″He's not going to wank while you tell him all about it?″

″Not unless you're in on it. That would be creepy.″

″Yeah,″ Suzie said. She put down the knickers. ″It would.″

Tosh smiled back softly.

″You're taking your clothes off if we're doing this,″ Suzie said, pulling the bra right back off. ″I don't have quickies with girls who can't even be bothered to take their clothes off.″

″Right,″ Tosh said, even as she pulled her own shirt over her head. ″It's a very different thing to have a quicky with a naked girl. _Much_ more romantic.″ Still, Tosh's bra followed her shirt, and then her shoes and socks came off, and finally her trousers and her knickers.

When Tosh was naked, she walked over to Suzie, and Suzie grabbed her and lightly pushed her onto the bed.

″Lie down,″ Suzie said.

Tosh did so quickly.

Suzie adjusted Tosh's arms slightly, and then Suzie climbed onto the bed herself, tossed a leg over Tosh's body, pinned both of Tosh's arms under her knees, and sat on Tosh's face.

Tosh was a good and experienced sub. She knew what was expected of her when a Domme sat on her face. Tosh only took a second to get her bearings, and then Suzie felt the lightly textured, wet touch of a tongue run over her cunt. Her body, which had long since wound down from it's previous excitement, didn't need any time to get back into the mood. Her cunt woke up and began aching with need between every flick of Tosh's skilled pink tongue, and Suzie kept Tosh pinned and rode that pleasure for a minute or so, before Suzie leaned forward. Tosh wasn't Suzie's sub, and it seemed polite to reciprocate.

Suzie reached past Tosh's dark pubic hair and spread the lips of Tosh's cunt to give herself access to Tosh's clit, and then she brought her lips down until they were _almost_ touching Tosh, but not quite. Tosh would be able to feel Suzie's breath against her most sensitive areas, and the anticipation had to be building, even though it did nothing to distract Tosh from her own task. On the contrary, Tosh seemed to work harder, obviously hoping that if she were nice to Suzie, Suzie would be nice to her.

Suzie was. Tosh _squeaked_ slightly the first time Suzie dragged her tongue along Tosh's clit, an adorable but slightly undignified sound. Suzie responded with a deep, sensual moan, to teach Tosh how it was down.

Tosh got the hint. She sucked on Suzie's clit and gave a deep moan over her own, and the muscles in Suzie's thighs trembled with pleasure as Suzie fought not to buck into Tosh's mouth.

Suzie had every intention of coming first, so she deliberately kept Tosh on the edge, just as a little extra encouragement, but never pushed her over the edge. It was good for a sub to have a goal to work toward, especially if that sub hadn't had sex with a woman in ages. Tosh responded exactly as Suzie had hoped, with fervent licks and lots of breathy, sensual noises, until finally Suzie herself came with a loud moan, and she relaxed on top of Tosh's body for a few seconds until Tosh gave another needy moan. Now that Tosh had done her part, Suzie wasted no time bringing Tosh to her own orgasm, and they lied on the bed in a tangle of tired limbs.

″You were right,″ Suzie admitted. ″That did make my day _a lot_ better. It no longer feels like a total waste.″

″Mmm,″ Tosh said. ″_Jack_ was right. It was his idea.″

″Whatever,″ Suzie said, rolling off of Tosh. Then Suzie sighed. ″Is he good to you?″

″Yes,″ Tosh said immediately. ″Very. I love subbing for him. I've never been with one Dom for this long before, actually.″

″That's good,″ Suzie said. ″I don't submit for men very often.″

″Oh,″ Tosh said. ″You're a switch?″

″A little bit,″ Suzie said. ″I'm mostly a Domme, but for the right woman and, _rarely_, for the right man, I'll make an exception. Or if I'm in the right mood, if it's just a one-time thing.″

″Well,″ Tosh said, ″If you ever find yourself in the mood, you should give Jack a call. He's good to his subs and I can't imagine that he'd say no to you if you asked.″

″I might actually do that, at some point,″ Suzie said. ″In any case, if you and he ever find yourselves looking for a third player in either role, call me. I might say no, depending on the specifics, but...″ Suzie caressed Tosh's thigh gently. ″I might say yes.″

″I'll let Jack know.″

They both pulled their clothes on. Suzie gathered up her fetish gear and threw it into the shopping bag. They went down to their cars, and drove home. Suzie drank her wine and ate her ice cream and watched chick flicks, because she could. Tosh most likely went back to Jack, and finished whatever they'd been in the middle of when Suzie called. Life went on.

It was three months later when Suzie's phone rang on a dull, rainy afternoon. It was Jack, so Suzie assumed that something was eating someone somewhere on the other side of the city, and she quickly answered her phone.

″So,″ Jack said as soon as Suzie said 'Hello,' ″Are you still interested in that threesome?″

Suzie was speechless. She'd all but forgotten that had happened. Had Tosh just now mentioned it to Jack, or had Jack been sitting on it for a while? What role did Jack want her in? What did Jack think it meant if she said yes? How would it change things between them at work if she said yes? Did Suzie really trust Tosh's opinion on whether or not Jack was a good Dom enough to let Jack dominate her? As all of these thoughts buzzed through Suzie's head, somehow, the first coherent thought that Suzie could get out of her mouth was ″Call me a unicorn and I'll rip your balls off with my bare hands, okay?″

There was silence on the other end of the line for two long seconds, and then Jack laughed. ″Understood. Is that a 'yes'?″

Suzie paused. ″It... It might be? What exactly did you have in mind?″

″Well,″ Jack said, ″I'm not in any mood to share Tosh. You'd have to be submissive.″

Suzie thought about that for a minute. She rarely submitted to men. She'd only had one long-term male Dom before in her life, in fact, and he'd been Indian. More than that, though, he'd been Suzie's _friend_ in a time when Suzie hadn't had friends. Suzie had known for a fact that he would never hurt her. On the other hand, though... Suzie hadn't contacted him in years. She couldn't contact him, even though she missed him. It wasn't safe. And he had a wife and probably a few kids now and Suzie was sure he'd long ago forgotten about her. If Suzie had friends now, Tosh and Jack were them. Even the couple she was fucking weren't her _friends_. They were fuck-buddies. Nothing more. They never did anything together that didn't involve taking off their clothes. She didn't exactly meet up with Tosh and Jack for poker games, but she did trust them with her life on a regular basis. They knew more about her than anyone else in this city. Jack was the _only_ person Suzie was still in contact with who knew the first thing about where Suzie came from. He didn't know _much_—He didn't ask questions about things that were none of his business. That had always been one of Suzie's favorite things about Jack—but he knew more than anyone else and he'd kept those secrets and protected her for all these months.

″Alright,″ Suzie said. ″My safeword is 'Eridanus.'″

There was a second of silence on the other end, and then Jack fondly said ″There's a story behind that.″

″Yes,″ Suzie said. ″It's not important right now.″

Jack didn't push. ″Fair enough. Anything that _is_ my business? Hard limits I should know going in?″

″I don't do race play, you don't get to call me anything that insults my ethnicity or my gender, biological waste products are out of the question, including vomit, and you can't slap me or punch me. Spanking me is fine.″

″Understood.″

″And can I ask you something?″

″You can right now, so you'd probably better.″

″Why are you calling me about this _now_?″

″Tosh and I were talking and we thought that bringing someone else in might be fun.″

″Hopefully for me too,″ Suzie said. ″I'm not used to having to compete with other subs for a Dom's affection.″

″I have plenty of affection for both of you, trust me. And I think you two have a bit for each other. Tosh really seemed to enjoy helping you out of that situation a few months back.″

″And you didn't feel you needed another person back then?″

″We don't _need_ another person now. But if you'd like to join us, we'd be happy to have you now. Fair?″

″Fair,″ Suzie agreed.

″What time is it now?″ Jack asked.

″A few minutes after noon.″

″Be here at six.″

″Whatever you want.″

Suzie walked through the door of Jack's office at exactly six o'clock, and Tosh was already tied to his desk with her legs spread wide.

″Am I late?″ Suzie asked.

Jack glanced at the clock. ″No. You're right on time.″

″So you started without me?″

″No,″ Jack said. ″I just got ready for you.″

He walked over to her with long, stiff, vaguely threatening strides, and then he cupped her face and made her look him in the eyes before he bent down and kissed her on the lips, insistently but softly. Suzie found that she enjoyed it. She arched into the kiss and let him bring a hand behind her back to help her keep her balance, so that she was more at his mercy. He was already naked, and that made her feel better about the fact that she soon would be as well, even though that she knew that her position in this scene left her far more vulnerable and exposed than Jack's left him.

When Jack stopped kissing Suzie, he reached for the buttons on her blouse. He started with the bottom button and moved up, over her stomach, until finally his hands were right up against her throat.

Trust.

If Suzie couldn't trust Jack then she couldn't trust anyone.

The button came undone and Suzie helped Jack slip the blouse off of her arms, and then, without moving behind her, Jack unclasped her bra. He reached between her cleavage to grab it at the center, and stepped back to pull it off in one quick, smooth motion. He dropped it on the floor and stepped close to her again, and his hands went directly to the clasp on her skirt. It was undone and he was pushing her skirt down in seconds. Suzie stepped out of it, and then off came her knickers.

″You can keep the shoes or lose them,″ Jack said, looking at her gladiator sandals. ″I don't care.″ He turned around and gestured to his desk. ″Go say hello to Tosh.″

Suzie left her sandals on, for time's sake, and did as she was told. She walked over to the side of the desk and looked down at Tosh for a moment, curiously.

Tosh smiled reassuringly. ″Hello,″ Tosh said softly.

″Hello,″ Suzie said, and then she decided to make it a _good_ hello, and she leaned down and kissed Tosh. Her lips weren't as soft as Jack's, but she responded more hungrily while he had been cool. She opened her mouth and let Suzie's tongue in almost immediately, and moaned as Suzie ran her tongue along Tosh's lips. Tosh's hands were bound, but Suzie raised her right hand and brought them to Tosh's breasts, which were soft and smooth beneath Suzie's fingers. Suzie ran her fingers over Tosh's nipples, first the right and then the left, and enjoyed how large and perky they'd become, left exposed to the cool air of the base for who knew how long. Suzie could feel her own nipples hardening too, adjusting to the cold and preparing to be touched and played with and claimed by a Dom for the first time in a very long time. Suzie rolled Tosh's nipple between her fingers and even tugged lightly on the left one. It couldn't have really hurt, but it made Tosh gasp and her eyes light up.

Jack cleared his throat sharply. ″That's enough.″

Suzie wondered if she'd gone too far. Jack had said he was not at all in the mood to share Tosh. Perhaps Suzie should be careful about the liberties she took with Tosh, especially while she was bound and helpless and so completely exposed for Suzie as well as Jack. ″Sorry,″ Suzie said softly.

″I didn't say you had anything to apologize for,″ Jack said. He walked over to Suzie and he stroked her cheek. ″I'm not going to punish you for being too eager to do what I asked you to do. You knew I wanted you to play with her. You stopped when I told you to stop. That's what matters.″ He kissed Suzie again, this time lightly and comfortingly, then he said, ″Now, get up on the desk and get onto your hands and knees above her, facing her feet.″

Suzie knew where this was going. She obeyed quickly. It took one smooth movement to get onto the desk, and then she tossed her knee over Tosh's waist and waited for Jack to follow her.

He didn't, right away. First, he walked into Suzie's field of vision, and caressed Tosh's leg slowly and sensually before reaching up and twirling one of Suzie's loose curls. When he let her hair go, he brought that same hand to the back of her head, and gently pushed down. Suzie leaned forward under the pressure until her mouth was nearly pressed to Tosh's cunt, exactly where she'd expected it to go.

″Don't do anything until I tell you to,″ Jack said.

Suzie swallowed and nodded.

″Suzie?″ Jack said. Apparently he wanted verbal answers.

″_Yes_, master,″ Suzie said. 'Master' was not Suzie's favorite term for her Doms, perhaps somewhat hypocritically, but they hadn't discussed what he wanted her to call him, and Suzie knew as a switch that it was better to called a Dom the highest honorific you can think of and let them tell you to be a bit _less_ formal than to call them something that they might decide is too casual. Suzie had made a man _scream_ before for calling her 'ma'am' instead of 'mistress.'

Jack chuckled slightly. ″'Jack,' is fine, Suzie.″

″Then yes, Jack.″

″Good girl.″

There it was. Suzie had always had a strange reaction to those words. They made her feel embarrassed, but in a _good_ way. It was like being twelve again and hearing her mother brag about her at dinner parties. It was simultaneously condescending and encouraging. Suzie could feel herself blushing and she was glad that neither Jack nor Tosh was in a position to see her face get red.

She heard the noises as Jack climbed onto the desk behind her, then she _felt_ him behind her, just behind Tosh's head, ready to enter Suzie from behind.

His hand slipped up Suzie's thigh so quickly and possessively that Suzie actually squirmed a little.

Jack just chuckled again. ″Should I wear a condom, Suzie, or should I enter you bare?″ His voice was playful, like he'd already decided on the answer, but Suzie knew that he was asking because he really wanted _Suzie_ to decide. The tone of voice was just to avoid breaking character.

″I'm on the pill,″ Suzie said. She didn't have to worry about anything else that could happen as a result Jack not wearing protection. Jack had antibiotics that could cure _anything_, short of open wounds. Open wounds and genetic modification cases were the only reasons they ever even talked about hiring a doctor. ″So...″ His hand was still rubbing her thigh slightly, keeping her excited. Suzie didnt have a great submissive voice, but she managed to at least not sound sarcastic when she said ″Whatever would please _you_, Jack.″

″Bare it is,″ Jack said. He pushed into her a second later, before Suzie was really ready for it. Suzie gasped slightly, and Jack shushed her. ″It's okay,″ he said, now stroking down Suzie's back to help her relax her body and adjust to him. ″As soon as you're ready, start eating Tosh out, and I'll take care of you and I. It'll all be nice and easy.″

Suzie had PIV sex with the men she dominated, if they were good. She liked riding them and watching them squirm. It hadn't been a particularly long time since she'd had a cock in her. Jack's was definitely the largest she'd had in her in a while, though, and she needed a couple of deep breaths before she was quite comfortable with the idea of him pulling it out of her and shoving it back in again, particularly when this was all under_his_ control rather than hers. When she was ready, though, she leaned forward and once again started to lick away at Tosh's cunt.

Tosh inhaled sharply, and Jack knew that was his signal to begin. He pulled out slowly, to help Suzie adjust more, and pushed in only slightly faster than he'd pulled out. As Suzie began to such up the salty juices that were flowing from Tosh's cunt as Tosh watched Jack fuck Suzie slowly and felt Suzie licking at her cunt, Jack took Suzie slowly and selfishly, with his hands gripping her hips tight enough to bruise and his slow thrusts into Suzie's tight cunt hitting her g-spot so hard that she moaned into Tosh.

Jack's breaths were slow, controlled, and every movement of his body seemed to be carefully planned to either maximize Suzie's pleasure or torture her mercilessly. Those nails in her hips _hurt_, but Suzie didn't dare say anything. Tosh was squirming beneath Suzie, pulling on her bonds with both her hands and her feet, being just slightly naughty because she knew that her Dom was too distracted to notice and punish her for it. Or maybe even if he had noticed, he didn't think it was worth it. She wasn't struggling to get away. She was struggling to struggle. To satisfy the urge and give in to what her body wanted her to do. She'd come soon, and since Suzie was not in control of this situation, Suzie was going to let her come soon. Suzie wouldn't slow down. Jack might consider that too bold. He might punish her for it, and Suzie knew damn well how strong Jack was and she did not want to feel his hand on her backside.

At the very least, she didn't want it badly enough to commit to it by displeasing him. Not yet.

Jack sped up his thrusts before Tosh came. He got fast and rough and dirty and he rode Suzie like he'd never wanted anything more in his life than to come hard and deep inside of her. Suzie's tongue didn't rest. She lapped away at Tosh's wet cunt and enjoyed the thick wetness that came back on her tongue every time.

Tosh let out a loud ″Oh!″ that was half a sigh and half a moan as she came, and Suzie stopped and raised her head to let out a few desperate, pleading whines of her own while Jack rode her vigorously until _finally_ he hit her g-spot that last time and that did it. Suzie came hard, and she trembled around him, he came too.

They all three held still and panted for a minute. Suzie's thighs felt weak. She wasn't sure how much longer she could support her own body weight.

Just on time, Jack pried his nails out of Suzie's hips and sat down behind Tosh Suzie was just restrained enough to keep herself from hurting Tosh when she collapsed on top of Tosh, and they all three rested for a minute.

Then, Jack reached forward and pinched Suzie's arse cheek so hard that Suzie whimpered.

″I didn't tell you that you could rest,″ Jack said.

″I'm sorry.″ Suzie started to get back up, but Jack put his hand on the small of her back and pushed her back down. ″Stay, as long as you're there.″

He got off the desk and began to walk around it, untying Tosh's restraints. Tosh moved underneath Suzie as Jack freed her, rubbing her chaffed wrists and trying to get into a more comfortable position. Suzie tried to accommodate Tosh in this movement, until Jack untied Tosh's legs, and Tosh tried to pull them in closer to her, crowding the desk a little bit.

″May I get down now, Jack?″ Suzie asked.

″Yes,″ Jack said, so Suzie climbed off the desk. Her legs were steadier now, so she stood by the desk and waited for further instructions.

Jack tossed the ties into his desk chair. ″Tosh,″ Jack said sternly, ″You knew you were supposed to hold still.″

Tosh dropped her gaze.

″Not even an 'I tried'?″ Jack asked. He sighed before she had a chance to answer. ″Right. Because you didn't. So that's going to be ten swats.″

″Oh, Jack,″ Suzie said. ″I think that—″

″I didn't _ask_ what you think,″ Jack said sharply. ″Ten for you too for back-talking.″

Suzie almost argued, but she stopped herself. She knew that would only make this worse, and really, ten wasn't bad. It was an excellent way to get a feel for what Jack was capable of without suffering. Just ten hits? Even if Jack hit them unreasonably hard, Suzie would be fine by the end of the night.

Jack climbed back up onto the desk, and Tosh neither objected nor struggled as Jack pulled her over his lap in a very calm, smooth motion, as if lifting her weight was the easiest thing in the world for him.

He gave Tosh a second to get comfortable, and then he hit her. Suzie jumped at the sound of the _smack_ that echoed through the room, but Tosh barely flinched. Jack waited a long second, and then the second blow fell, just as hard and just as loud. The remaining eight fell in the same fashion, one hard blow followed by a brief pause, and then the next blow, and though Tosh didn't make a sound throughout it, Suzie watched as the skin on her arse turned from pale to pink, and Tosh started to squirm in Jack's lap to relieve her discomfort. Suzie stared at the whole thing, almost transfixed, and she was half surprised to find that, by the time Jack was finished, she was aroused all over again.

After the tenth blow, Jack rested his hand gently on Tosh's red arse for a second, and softly said ″Next time you're told not to struggle, _don't_. Make me believe that you're at least _trying_.″ He lifted his hand. ″Get up,″ he told Tosh. Then he looked at Suzie. ″Your turn. Come here.″

Suzie felt a jolt of pleasurable fear shoot down her legs and _almost_ root her to the spot, but she overcame it before Jack got annoyed. She climbed back onto the desk and found herself climbing straight into Jack's arms. He half-lifted her and draped her over his lap.

He looked her body over for a second, and then he hit her. Suzie could tell by the volume and sharpness of the sound that he'd hit her with the same severity he'd hit Tosh with, but Suzie hadn't been prepared for it. Suzie let out an indignant grunt, and had scarcely recovered from the first blow when the second one fell, hard and loud and _sharp_ on her bare backside. Blow after blow came down, and Suzie tried to be as brave as Tosh had and take them in silence, but Suzie had never had a Domme or a Dom nearly this strong this before, and she found that by Jack's tenth blow, she felt the way she generally expected to feel after the thirtieth blow. Her arse was throbbing and her eyes were watering, though not nearly enough to make any real tears fall. Just as he had done with Tosh, when Jack stopped spanking Suzie, he rested his hand right on her sore arse. That was a threat if Suzie had ever felt one.

With the blows stopped and Suzie's ears were no longer honed in on the sound of those smacks, Suzie realized that she was panting. ″Christ,″ Suzie said. She buried her head in her arms on the desk and took a few more deep breaths to gain her composure, before saying, ″You hit hard.″

″Is that a bad thing?″ Jack asked casually.

″That's...″ Suzie said. ″It is. And it also isn't.″

″Fair enough,″ Jack said. He lifted his hand. ″You can get up.″

Suzie did, very quickly. She winced at the feeling of her sore arse on the desk as she sat up, but soon she was standing again and it was over.

″You're going to have to learn, Suzie,″ Jack said. ″If we're ever going to do this again.″

Suzie looked over at him. ″You want to do this again?″

″Absolutely,″ Jack said. ″As long as you do.″

″Well...″ Suzie said. ″I... yes. I do.″ It was true. Suzie hadn't actually realized it until that second, but she did, desperately want to do this again. ″Not just again, but often... If _you_ want to do it often, I mean?″

″How often?″ Jack said. ″I could do it full-time, just like I do for Tosh.″

″At work?″ Suzie asked.

Jack shrugged. ″It's just a suggestion. It isn't for everyone.″

″It does have its advantages, though,″ Tosh said. ″It makes the balancing act a lot easier.″

″I'll bet,″ Suzie said. She bit her lip and thought about it. ″Tosh and I, you can't call us your harem,″ Suzie said. ″Don't even think it.″

″Fine,″ Jack said. ″I wasn't planning on it, but I definitely won't now.″

″And I'm still going to have sex with other people,″ Suzie said. ″I'm still going to want to be dominant sometimes, so I'll have to take care of that without you two, and I have other relationships that I have no intention of breaking off.″

Jack smirked. ″Right. The lovely couple that left you naked at the hotel.″

″They're very nice people,″ Suzie said.

″Fine by me,″ Jack said. ″And if you and Tosh want to work something out, that's fine with me too. I just don't want to _see_ you dominate her unless I specifically tell you to.″

″Deal,″ Suzie said.

″Start tomorrow?″ Jack asked.

″Yes,″ Suzie said. ″We can start tomorrow, but you have to start easy.″

″Deal.″


	3. Chapter 3

Title: Beginnings  
Summary: Prequel to ″Reconciliation.″ Jack's first time with each of his subs.  
Rating: AO for graphic sex, violence, and mature themes.  
Fic Word Count: 34,444  
Fic Pairings: Jack Harkness/Toshiko Sato, Jack Harkness/OFC, Suzie Costello/Toshiko Sato, Jack Harkness/Suzie Costello/Toshiko Sato, Jack Harkness/Owen Harper, Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones, Jack Harkness/Gwen Cooper/Rhys Williams  
Fic Contains: biting, blood play mention, blowjobs, bondage, caning, canon character death mention, casual drug use discussion, clamps, cunnilingus, Dom controlling a sub's clothing, exhibitionism, Fetish clothes, fingering, first time with a man, gags, handjobs, one night stands, orgasm denial, PIV sex, sensory deprivation (blindfolds), sexuality discussion, spanking, threesomes, vampire gloves, violence mention, voyeurism  
Fic Warnings: canon character death discussion, casual racism (outside of the main pairing), fetishization (outside of the main pairing), suicide contemplation, unwanted non-sexual touches (outside of the main pairing)

* * *

Chapter Number: Three  
Chapter Word Count: 7,595  
Chapter Pairings: Jack Harkness/Owen Harper  
Chapter Contains: spanking, sexuality discussion, sensory deprivation (blindfolds), bondage, vampire gloves, blood play mention, gags, blowjobs  
Chapter Warnings: suicide contemplation, canon character death discussion,

* * *

Eggs. The first thing Owen was aware of was the smell of eggs.

Second thing: He could hear the frying pan sizzle.

The third thing was—well, the third thing was his massive fucking headache, but then he realized that he couldn't see shit. It was dark. He was awake in the middle of the night, and someone was cooking eggs in his kitchen.

He closed his eyes and sighed.

Maybe he'd done it. Just as planned. He got black-out drunk at his stag party with some of his mates from the hospital, and now Katie was cooking breakfast at whatever ungodly hour this was because, well, they had a long day ahead of them. He'd have to get up any minute now so that they could eat before going off to get dressed and she could get her hair and makeup done and they could rush off to the church on time for the wedding at 1:00. They'd be in Innsbruck by tomorrow morning. Maybe it was all okay. Maybe. God. What an awful dream all of that alien bollocks had been!

Owen rolled over. He buried his eyes in his pillow and he forced himself to breathe.

He should get up and go to her. Help her cook.

It was a shame that all he could remember was that awful dream.

Had Katie's cousin managed to find the bride's maid dress in plus-size? Had Owen forgotten to ask or had Katie forgotten the answer?

Why was the other side of the bed so cold? How long had Katie been—

Just breathe. In, nice and slow. Out. In. Out. He'd thought about not breathing anymore, a few times, but he'd decided to hold off on that decision until after the New Year. He'd been hoping that, given some time and some distance, he'd think of a few good reasons to live without Katie. So far, no luck. He supposed that was why he wasn't really scared, despite an intruder making eggs in his kitchen. Granted, Owen had been a doctor for long enough to know that 'stab wound' was _not_ how he wanted to go, given a choice, but it seems like such a small price to pay, to never have to get out of this bed and face the truth.

Or maybe it was a toss-up. Getting stabbed and getting out of bed both sounded pretty fucking painful.

Maybe he'd leave. Maybe it was just some poor sod who really wanted eggs. Maybe if Owen just waited it out here in bed, the intruder would eat his eggs and then leave. It wouldn't be the weirdest thing that had happened to Owen in the last few months.

The sizzling stopped. Something in the toaster popped up.

There was about a minute of silence, and then someone pushed open Owen's bedroom door.

"I know you're awake," Jack said. "Snoring like yours? People notice when it stops."

No running from it now. Owen sighed and sat up.

Jack handed Owen a plate, then turned on a table lamp, which didn't irritate Owen's headache quite as much the main light would have.

Jack had a plate of food for himself too, and two glasses of water in his arm. He passed one to Owen.

Water. Eggs. Toast. Hangover food. Owen stared down at it for a second while Jack started eating his.

"Did I invite you over?" Owen asked, genuinely curious because he had very few and very hazy memories of what had happened after he got off work yesterday.

"No," Jack said.

"Did I let you in?" Owen asked.

"No," Jack said.

"Then why are you here?"

Jack stared at Owen for a moment, then sighed. "Torchwood's mortality rate is high enough as it is without our doctor killing himself. That's sort of a double-blow."

Owen looked down at his plate. 'I wasn't going to kill myself!' he probably should have said. He said nothing.

"You should eat," Jack said. "And drink that water. You'll feel better."

No. It would help with the hangover. That was all. It wouldn't really make him feel better. Owen had been there before, though, as a doctor. If you can't treat the disease, you treat the symptoms. Owen took a long drink of water, and that satisfied Jack a little bit.

"At first I thought you'd just gone on another bender. I was ready to lay into you when you sobered up. Then Tosh told me you were supposed to get married this month..."

When had Owen told Tosh that? _Why_ had Owen told Tosh that? When he was drunk and because he was drunk, probably...

"Then I got scared," Jack said. "I did a little digging and figured out what I think Tosh already suspected. She wanted to come, but I told her not to."

Why?

Oh.

"In case I was already dead?" Owen asked.

Jack nodded. "I called her as soon as I found you and let her know you were okay. We're not the only ones who thought it was a possibility, you know. Your phone's been ringing. I answered the last call. I figured your friends would want to know that you're okay."

Friends. The guys from the hospital. The ones who were left. Harry. Matthew. Had they been Owen's friends? They'd been his groomsmen. He liked working with them. But he hadn't said a fucking word to any of them since he joined Torchwood.

It was sweet that they cared enough to check in on him on the second worst day of life, though.

"I'm proud of you, you know," Jack said softly. "For not doing it. I know you must have wanted to." Jack sighed. "I don't like you drinking, but sometimes you do what you have to do to get through the hard days. I get that."

What did Owen care whether or not Jack liked him drinking? It wasn't Jack's liver. It wasn't Jack's dead fiancee. Owen took another drink of water. "Did you have some hard days in the Air Force?"

Jack nodded. "Yeah. A couple." He looked at Owen's plate and and his eyes narrowed. "Owen," he said, slightly more sternly. "Eat."

Owen swallowed two forkfuls of egg before he remembered that he had no real reason to listen to Jack right now. They weren't at work.

Owen knew that Jack was Tosh and Suzie's Dom. Though they didn't exactly fuck in on the conference table in front of Owen, they could be pretty bold at work, and Owen had seen Jack and Tosh at parties. He'd seen Jack spank Tosh at one of those parties. Owen had been talking dirty to a couple of Domme's as they fondled him and looked him over, and Jack and Tosh had been in a crowd of six or seven people on the other side of the room, laughing and chatting about something. Owen had known that they were there, but he hadn't paid much attention to them until Jack pulled Tosh over his lap. Owen still didn't know what Tosh had said that Jack had found so impudent that it needed immediate and public correction, but Owen had watched as Jack's strong arms came down on her bare arse a few times. He'd flinched. The Domme's had found that terribly funny, and Owen had had a sore arse of his own by the end of the night. Owen was sure that Jack and Tosh had known he was there and that he'd seen the whole thing, too, but the three of them had never talked about it. Their whole involvement in the BDSM community seemed to be something that they just didn't talk about. Owen supposed that it wasn't exactly workplace conversation.

Owen knew the difference between a boss voice and a Dom voice. That 'Eat' had been in a Dom voice. Had Jack meant to do that? No. He couldn't have. He'd done that out of habit. You don't order your employees to eat. You order your subs to do that. Eventually, you get used to saying the word with a certain tone.

A tone that Owen had responded to as quickly as Tosh or Suzie would have.

Jack was smirking. Whether he'd done that on purpose or not, he'd certainly noticed that it had worked.

"So. I slept through work, huh?" Owen was hoping that reminding Jack that their relationship was strictly professional might wipe that smirk off his face.

"You did," Jack said. The smirk stayed in place. "But don't worry. I gave you the sick day." Jack took a drink of his water, then looked at Owen thoughtfully. "Were you?"

"What?"

"Sick. How much did you drink?"

"Enough to not really remember the answer to that question."

"Enough to black out, then?"

Owen nodded. He kept his eyes down, on his plate, and he ate another bite of eggs, because he might as well if he was going to be staring at them anyway.

"And you were by yourself?" There it was again. The Dom tone. The 'I'm about to punish you and you'll deserve it' tone. Jack still probably wasn't doing it on purpose.

Owen certainly wasn't reacting to it on purpose.

"You're not my Dom, Jack!" Owen snapped. His face ached already.

"No," Jack said calmly. "I'm not, luckily for you."

"Oh?"

Jack shrugged. "If you _want_ to spend a week at the base and not be able to sit down for most of it, you're welcome to. If not, yeah, I'd say it's lucky."

"Extenuating circumstances don't count for anything?"

Jack thought about it for a moment. "The extenuating circumstances are the reason _why_ I'd make you stay with me, so they wouldn't help you there. If you really thought the spanking was unreasonable, we could talk about it." He took a drink of water, but kept his eyes on Owen while he did so. "_Do_ you think it's unreasonable? Hypothetically, I mean. Because if it were me, I think I'd want it."

Owen shrugged.

"You're not making much of a case for yourself," Jack said.

"Neither are you."

Jack smirked. He took another bite of eggs, and kept smirking at Owen while he chewed. Owen wasn't Jack's sub and they weren't at work, so Jack was going to let Owen get away with talking to him that way. After Jack swallowed, his face go more serious. "You put yourself in danger," Jack said. "That is one thing that Tosh and Suzie are _never_ allowed to do without a damn good reason _and_ my approval, if it was at all possible to get it."

"I wasn't trying to poison myself," Owen said quickly. "I just wanted to get drunk enough to forget who I was."

"You're a doctor. I don't need to tell you why that's a bad idea."

"So what am I supposed to do?" Owen asked, flopping back on the bed. "Just deal with it?"

"Yes, actually," Jack said. "And be glad _you_ get a choice."

Right. Owen had seen plenty of people die when they didn't want to. But what did Owen owe those people? It wasn't Owen's fault that the universe wasn't fair and it killed people who wanted to live and spared people who wanted to die.

Katie. Katie wouldn't want Owen to die. Owen owed Katie _everything_.

"One day at time," Jack said. "Until it gets easier. It will, eventually."

Owen remembered that promise he'd made to himself the day after Katie's death. Not until the new year. January 2nd. That was a good day to decide whether or not to kill himself. Maybe, if he still hadn't learned to care less about Katie, he could at least learn to care more about something else.

"I've lost a lot of people, Owen," Jack said. "I know what I'm talking about."

"Today, then," Owen said. "What do I do today?"

Jack frowned. "Breathe. Eat your eggs. Drink your water."

"And for the other twenty-three hours and fifty minutes in the day?"

"Keep breathing," Jack said. Then he shrugged. "Do you want to watch a movie?"

"Sure," Owen said. "As long as it doesn't have death or romance in it."

Jack through about this for a second. "Do you have a deck of cards anywhere?"

"There's probably one in the hall closet."

Jack went off to find it, and Owen laid on his bed and contented himself with the fact that Jack was not going to leave Owen alone. Jack probably knew he wasn't going to make Owen feel any better, so Owen could only assume that his goal was to prevent Owen from killing himself. That was fair, honestly. Owen knew very well just how much paperwork there was when someone died. Jack didn't have time for all of that.

Honestly, Owen might have taken a good spanking over losing ten consecutive card games. At least they weren't playing for money. Jack was good. Or maybe Owen was just really bad. Owen was blaming it on the hangover, because even though Jack had actually agreed to play by candlelight and continued to reprimand Owen every time Owen went two straight minutes without taking a drink of water, Owen's headache persisted. It was strange. They didn't even move to the kitchen. They stayed right there in the bedroom and played cards on Owen's bed until sunrise, and Owen hardly thought about what a strange thing that was to do with one's boss. He was too sad and hungover to be worried about someone revoking his man-card. No one but Jack knew, anyway, and Jack was the last person Owen could imagine shaming him for not living up to modern ideals of masculine heterosexuality.

Jack made breakfast a little while after the sun came up. Owen ate it all without complaint or question and drank another glass of water. Jack rewarded him with a smile that, from a Dom, would mean very good things later. From a boss, it probably just meant a slightly higher chance of getting approved for the next day off he requested. Owen didn't even really need days off, anyway. He rarely got sick and it wasn't like he ever had family functions to go to. Owen wasn't expecting an invitation to his own mother's funeral, when it happened. Hell, it may have already happened, for all Owen knew.

Jack made Owen shower and get dressed. Owen didn't see the point of it, but Jack insisted that it would make Owen feel better, so Owen did as he was told. He didn't really feel better. He just felt numb and slightly sick and very wet. When Owen got out of the shower, he found Jack starting one of Owen's video games. A racing game. Owen could handle that. They played until about 11:00, and then Jack insisted on them going out for lunch. Owen didn't really want to go, but he'd already caught on to the fact that Jack was calling the shots. He didn't even let Owen pick the restaurant.

"Do you know if I can swap the carrots out for another vegetable?" Owen asked, looking at his menu.

Jack's eyes moved up and down the menu quickly. "Don't get the duck," Jack said. "Get a steak."

Owen rolled his eyes. "And what will you be ordering for me to drink? Just so you know, I could really go for a coffee, now that my hangover's gone."

Jack smirked. "Sorry," he said. "Believe it or not, that one was actually meant as advice, not an order."

"And how many of the others were advice and not orders?"

"Very few of them," Jack admitted, still smiling. "I'm bossy. I know. It's a character flaw."

"You are the bossiest boss I have ever had," Owen agreed. He looked back at his menu and smirked a little himself. "Also, the only one that ever broke into my flat in the middle of the night."

The waiter appeared out of nowhere just on time to hear that, but he didn't question it. Jack ordered a steak and an Americano, and then the waiter turned to Owen.

Owen thought about it for a minute. He'd never actually eaten here before. "I'll have the same," he said. He handed his menu off.

Jack was watching the waiter walk away when Owen sighed and dropped his head into his head. "Christ," he said. "We're here all alone, casually dressed in the middle of the day, and I just let you order for me. He probably thinks we're on a date."

"Maybe," Jack said. "Did you get the sense that he was jealous of you?"

"Jealous of me?" Owen repeated. Then he realized. "Oh." He looked over at the waiter for a second while he took an order a few tables over. He was a tall redhead, around Owen's age. Too old to be a university student, and he had a Cardiff accent. Lightly freckled. Muscular. Owen could see the appeal. "He's not gay," Owen said, looking back at Jack.

"Good," Jack said. "Neither am I."

"He is at least ten years younger than you."

"Really?" Jack said, eyebrows climbing up his forehead.

Owen flinched. "Forget that I said that," he said.

Jack smirked. "You are so lucky you're not my sub."

"I know," Owen said. "We went over that earlier." The waiter was out of sight now. "Would Tosh and Suzie really be okay with that, though? With you just picking up some waiter and bringing him into the relationship?"

Jack blinked hard. "I wasn't thinking about anything _nearly_ that long-term," Jack said. "But if I did want to bring someone else in on the relationship, I'd have every right to do that. If they weren't comfortable with the new person and wanted to have different boundaries with him than they do with each other, we'd talk about it, but our relationship is open. I can sleep with whomever I want, in whatever way I want. So can they, unless I specifically tell them not to."

"Doesn't that get complicated?" Owen asked. "Having sex with all those people?"

Jack looked behind Owen and paused, and a second later, their drinks arrived.

After the waiter left, Owen shrugged. "I mean, one night stands I get. I've had plenty of those. But when it comes to long-term relationships, wouldn't it be so much easier to just find that one right..." He paused. "Wait. I just remembered who I'm talking to." He smirked. "Never mind."

Jack smirked back. "Actually, I've found that three can be considerably _less_ complicated than two. We don't have to be everything to each other. We know what we _are_, and that's great. The more the merrier."

"As a doctor," Owen said, but Jack cut him off:

"As a _Torchwood_ doctor, Owen, you know that it's not a problem."

Owen shrugged.

Jack leaned back and sucked his teeth. "I wish we knew if he thought we were on a date," Jack said. "It changes how I have to approach this. I don't want him to get the wrong impression. I'm not cheating on you _or_ looking for a threesome." He looked at Owen. "Unless you want a threesome?"

"I'll pass," Owen said. "Unlike you, I'm _really_ not gay."

"Right," Jack said. "You and John spent an hour in the bedroom at Mike's last party talking about how very not gay you are, right?" Jack sighed. "I'm not _really_ gay either. You can ask the women I'm sleeping with."

"So then what are you?" Owen asked.

Jack shrugged. "That question's a bit more complicated for me than it is for you."

"Really?" Owen asked. "Because lately it's felt pretty complicated for me lately." He sighed. "I'm straight. Except when I'm not." Owen stared down at the table. ″I wasn't at that party, but... I think I am, today."

"It doesn't really matter to me," Jack admitted. "You know, it's a pretty recent thing for it to matter to _anyone_. It used to be that if you had sex with men, you had sex with men. That was it. We all got petrol-bombed together in the 80s and we all went to jail together in the 50s." Jack took another sip of coffee. "In the grand scheme of things, I don't really mind if people call me gay. Call me 'pouf' or 'queer' and you're looking for a fight, but even my life isn't long enough to split hairs over whether or not I'm gay. It's not like I'm anything else either. Homosexual, heterosexual, bisexual, pansexual... None of them are..."

"Exactly right," Owen said. "None of them really accurately describe it."

Jack smiled, but he didn't quite look like that was what he'd been about to say.

Their food arrived. The steak was good. The coffee was okay. Owen still hadn't found anyone in Cardiff who could do really good coffee. Jack and Owen talked, mostly about trivial things and a little bit about what had happened at work the day before. When they were finished, Jack paid the check and left the waiter a generous tip and his phone number. Owen didn't think he was going to call, but Jack seemed to think it was worth a shot anyway.

By the time they got back to Owen's flat, he'd been awake for long enough that even with the coffee, he was ready for bed. Jack refused to let him go, though. He need to fix his sleeping schedule now, so that he wouldn't have to worry about it during the work week. Owen saw his point, but he grumbled anyway and beat Jack at a couple more races before they agreed to put on a documentary and relax for a little while. Jack didn't actually let Owen go to bed until 7:00pm, after Owen had eaten a full dinner.

"Are you going to stay here all night again?" Owen asked.

"No," Jack said. "I'm going to go home as soon as you're in bed."

Owen briefly wondered just how much _Jack_ had slept in the last few days. It couldn't have been very much at all. He'd gone to work on Friday and been over at Owen's house shortly after work. He'd stayed up with Owen all night Friday night. It was now 7:00pm on a Saturday.

Owen asked, but Jack dodged the question. He practically tucked Owen in before leaving, which was condescending and unnecessary, but Owen was too tired to get worked up over it.

"You're going to be okay?" Jack asked.

"I'm going to fall asleep," Owen said. "I can't imagine what trouble I'll get into then."

Jack nodded, but he looked worried. "Call me when you wake up," Jack said. "If I don't get a call by noon, I'm coming back over."

"Deal," Owen said. They were out of the danger zone as far as Owen doing anything, but Owen didn't really blame Jack for wanting to be careful for a few days. At the hospital, they'd often held people at the hospital for a few days after suicide attempts, just to be safe. Owen hadn't actually attempted anything, but Jack knew danger when he saw it. What was it Jack had said? If Owen were his sub, he'd spend a _week_ at the base. At least he didn't have to worry about that. Not having a sore arse was advantageous too. He could lie on his back.

It wasn't okay. None if it was really okay. But he was too tired to feel that right now, and tomorrow... well, Friday had been the hard day. Friday was over. Saturday was over. Sunday could only be easier.

Owen drifted off to sleep within minutes of Jack leaving.

He awoke at 7:48 in the morning, _knowing_ that there was something he was supposed to do. By the time he was out of the shower, he'd remembered what it was. He had to call Jack.

He could do that later.

He made breakfast and ate it very slowly while watching the morning news. He allowed himself to feel proud of the fact that there was no report of a handsome doctor being found dead in his flat in an apparent suicide.

Then it was 9:30. That probably counted as later. Owen looked at his mobile for a few seconds.

It was sitting on top of a copy of _The Da Vinci Code_, which he'd checked out from the library a week ago and hadn't yet opened. He should read at least the first chapter right now. He could call Jack later.

The first chapter was short. He kept reading.

This book really didn't deserve all of the hype it had gotten, but Owen read it until 11:55, and then—and then he read a little bit more.

When he heard his mobile ring, he looked up and it was 12:07.

Well, he didn't want Jack to think he was _dead_, so he answered.

″Hello,″ he said.

″Hey,″ Jack said cheerfully. ″Sleep in?″

″Nope,″ Owen said. ″Been up for hours.″

″Did you forget to call me?″ Jack asked.

″Nope,″ Owen said.

″Oh,″ Jack said. ″So you were deliberately blowing me off?″

″Something like that.″

″Any particular reason?″

Owen bit his lower lip and thought about it for a second. ″Because I wanted to...″

Jack sighed. ″Okay, Owen. I get it. I'm not your Dom. But this isn't about that. I'm trying to make sure you're okay, and if you could stop making that so difficult—″

″No, I mean, _I wanted to call you_.″

There was a moment of silence on the other end. ″You didn't call me because you wanted to call me?″

Owen paused for a second. ″The leap made sense in my head. I just...″ He sighed and looked down. ″What am I supposed to do now? Text you a picture of my erection and invite you over to give me that spanking?″

Jack was quiet for a second, then he said ″I'd be lying if I said I hadn't accepted cruder propositions.″

Owen sighed. ″And then what? I've never actually had sex with a man that I really had to... _see_ ever again.″

Jack laughed. ″Yeah, we'll probably have to see each other again if you want to keep working for me.″

″Well,″ Owen said. ″I don't really have anything else going on with my life right now.″

″Yeah, I got that sense,″ Jack said. ″You know, we can do it, and if you decide tomorrow that you're completely heterosexual and want to pretend it never happened, I can do that. It's not my favorite thing, but it wouldn't be the first time.″

″Hm,″ Owen said. ″Pretending it never happened means no telling anybody, right? Not even Tosh and Suzie?″

″Not even Tosh and Suzie. If they ever find out, it will be because you told them.″

″Because you've done such an amazing job of keeping _them_ from _me_?″

″They never asked me to keep them from you. Why would they? I'm kind of a catch.″

Owen rolled his eyes. He chewed on his cheek for a second and then said ″You'll spank me?″

″Is that what you want.″

″I guess so,″ Owen said.

″You sound unsure,″ Jack said. ″Let's try something else.″

Owen sat up a bit straighter. ″What?″

″If I give you a couple of hours,″ Jack said, ″Can you come to me clean and ready for a rough night?″

″How rough?″ Owen asked.

″Rough,″ Jack said, and there was that voice again. Definitely on purpose now. ″We'll talk specifics when you get here. Three hours. Be clean. Have a safeword in mind. Sound like fun?″

'Fun' wasn't the word Owen would use. Not for _Owen_, at least. Owen's cock was making its vote known, though. ″Okay,″ he said. ″Yeah. Just, er, I don't actually know where you live?″

Owen could hear Jack smirking on the other end of the line. ″I'll get us a hotel room.″ Of course he would. Mysterious asshole. ″That way there's no risk of Tosh and Suzie walking in on us.″

Okay, Owen had to give him that. Tosh and Suzie probably _did_ know where Jack lived, and they'd been in a relationship with him, however complicated that relationship was, for long enough that it wouldn't surprise Owen if they had keys. How often did Jack tell _them_to come to him?

There were other options, though. ″My flat is private _and_ free,″ Owen pointed out.

″It's also _yours_,″ Jack said. ″I'll text you the address in a little bit. Three hours. Don't be late.″

Owen tensed a little. He wouldn't be late. He and Jack were actually doing this now, and he was going to be good. If he was in for a rough night anyway, he wasn't going to make it rougher.

Three hours later, he was picking up a keycard from the front desk of a hotel far nicer than he'd expected his bdsm one-night stand to take place in. His last ones had been in far shadier places. This was well-lit. There were security cameras. All a good sign, honestly. It meant that, at the very lease, they wouldn't be getting up to anything messy.

It was 3:04. He wasn't late. He stopped outside the door and took a deep breath. Did good subs knock? He'd been given a keycard. That meant that Jack had _told_ the front desk to give him a keycard. Jack had _wanted_ him to have a keycard. Jack probably didn't want the inconvenience of having to get up and answer the door. It was Jack, so maybe he had arranged to be doing something cool when Owen walked in. Owen swiped the card and watched the light turn green.

He opened the door barely wide enough for his body and slipped in quickly, not sure what kind of scene might be waiting in the room and whether or not it would be appropriate for the eyes of strangers.

But before _Owen_ had time to process his surroundings, his world went dark.

″Safeword?″ Jack asked.

″Alcott.″

″I'm going to tie this blindfold,″ Jack said.

″Okay,″ Owen said.

Jack finished tying it a moment later. It was tight. Owen couldn't even see out the bottom of it. All he had was a vague impression of light.

A second or two went by, and then Owen felt Jack's lips on his. It took Owen's breath away. This was happening. Jack was kissing him. That was Jack's tongue slipping between his lips and claiming his mouth. Owen still got butterflies in his stomach anytime he had sex with a man, but this as so much worse and so much better. This was _Jack_, not some anonymous one-night stand that Owen would never see again. This could actually happen again, if Owen decided he wanted it to.

″I'm going to undress you,″ Jack said. ″Cooperate, but don't help.″

That was easy enough. Owen let Jack unbutton Owen's denims then unzip them, then push them down to the floor, along with Owen's pants. Well. This was happening quickly. Or maybe not. They'd had a 26-hour date this weekend, with a broadened definition of the word 'date.' Owen hadn't been on had a real date recently enough to be picky about the definition of the word.

Jack didn't touch Owen right away. There was a moment of silence where Owen assumed Jack was looking him over, and then Jack said ″Arms up,″ and when Owen complied, Jack quickly and carefully pulled Owen's shirt off without upsetting Owen's blindfold.

Then Jack touched him. Owen felt a hand run from Owen's chest to his thigh, carefully avoiding Owen's hardening cock.

Then Owen felt a hand on his neck. Owen associated that with being in trouble, but he couldn't have done anything wrong already, could he have?

Jack applied just enough pressure for Owen to get the message, and Owen started to walk forward.

No. Owen wasn't in trouble. Jack was asserting his dominance, because he could. Because Owen needed to know that Jack was in control, and that Jack _could_ touch him in any way he wanted.

Owen took half of a step after the pressure stopped and his legs hit the bed.

″Get onto the bed,″ Jack said.

Owen did, and he felt the mattress shift as Jack got on as well.

″Stay on your knees,″ Jack said. He sounded like he was a few feet away. ″Crawl forward.″

Owen did, until Jack told him to stop, then Jack ordered Owen to hold his hands above his head.

Owen complied, and Jack grabbed Owen's wrists and quickly tied them together, then secured them to something above Owen's head. Owen reflected that whatever it was, the hotel probably hadn't put it there for that purpose, but he was still trying to be good, so he didn't say that.

Jack got off the bed. Owen could hear movement off to his side, but nothing that would reveal what was coming. A minute went by, and then there were footsteps, and then his skin started to tingle a bit and his hair stood on ends as something very sharp grazed against his arm so lightly that it didn't' cause any pain.

″Ever played with vampire gloves before, Owen?″ Jack asked.

Owen swallowed hard. ″No,″ he admitted.

″Are you excited to?″

Owen squirmed for a second, then he nodded.

Jack caressed Owen's face with smooth leather, then the tingling sensation resumed as Jack ran something very sharp down Owen's back, far too gently to do any damage. ″Let me get a feel for your tolerance level,″ Jack said. ″On a scale of one to ten, one being 'I'm not sure if that's pain or if it just tickles,' and ten being 'I don't think I can take much more of that,' where are we now?″

″One,″ Owen said.

Jack placed his hand just below Owen's left hip and ran it down Owen's thigh a few inches, and this time he applied a bit of pressure.

Owen hissed. Those were some very sharp gloves. ″Three,″ he said.

Jack pressed harder. He ran his hand down Owen's thigh and there would be just half a second where Owen would feel the cool, smooth leather of the glove before he felt the rough sting of the spikes. The pain was moving, slowly but steadily, and Owen knew exactly where it was moving, but with his hands bound high above his head, keeping his body taught, there he was powerless to prevent it.

Owen didn't react this time, even though Jack's hand was leaving a burning trail in its wake and Owen could just _picture_ the blood rising up out of the ravines Jack was leaving in Owen's skin. That probably wasn't happening just yet, but the beauty of a blindfold was that Owen's imagination could run wild. ″Four,″ Owen said.

Jack grabbed Owen's arse cheek and _squeezed_.

Owen gasped and jumped, but not far enough to get away from Jack's hand the spikes it was embedding deep into Owen's sensitive flesh. ″Seven,″ Owen said breathlessly.

″Hm,″ Jack said. ″Thighs apart.″

Owen's body was already being held straight by his restraints. Spreading his thighs would throw his balance off and make the position considerably harder to hold.

That was probably exactly what Jack wanted.

Owen did as he was told, and then he waited. He took a deep breath and tried to get comfortable, even though the attempt was futile.

Then it happened.

He didn't actually hear the glove hit his flesh. He heard himself shout ″FUCK!″ as the pain of a dozen spikes hitting him in the inner thigh fast and hard overwhelmed him, but he didn't hear that slap itself.

He took a few more deep breaths and resisted the urge to close his legs. Jack had smacked him on the thigh. Hard. With spikes all over his gloves.

″Ten,″ Owen panted.

″Ten?″ Jack echoed calmly. ″Or do you need to use your safeword?″

Owen whimpered. He knew what that question meant. ″Ten,″ he said quietly.

″Do I need to get something for your mouth?″ Jack asked. ″I have alternatives to safewords.″

″That's...″ Owen wanted to say that that wasn't necessary, but the thought of more of those blows stopped him. He could take _maybe_ two more of those quietly. If he was going to need a gag, it was probably best to let Jack know now, when Jack had asked. Owen didn't think Jack would take kindly to have to stop the beating once it had started to get a gag Owen had said he didn't need. ″That's probably a good idea,″ Owen admitted.

There was more movement behind Owen, and then the mattress sagged as Jack got back onto the bed. Something smooth was touched to Owen's lips, and Owen opened his mouth and accepted the ballgag. Then Owen felt Jack press something into Owen's hand and moved Owen's thumb slightly.

″That's the tv remote,″ Jack said. ″Your thumb is over the power button. Press it to turn the tv on, and I'll stop. You'll have to be careful to keep holding it just like this. If your grip shifts, drop it and I'll give back to you. Normally I would use a hand-held alarm, but I don't think it's a good idea to have an alarm go off in a hotel.″

Owen smiled. Or at least he tried. Whatever his face looked like with the ballgag and the blindfold probably couldn't accurately be called a smile. Still, Owen appreciated a Dom who could improvise a bit.

He definitely wasn't smiling when Jack got off the bed. After a second, he felt an ungloved hand on the outside of his thigh, and he allowed himself to relax for a second, until he felt Jack's other hand, which definitely _was_ wearing the glove, close around his thigh and apply pressure until Owen was once again _sure_ that he could feel his skin being split open beneath it. Owen whined into his gag as Jack dragged his hand down Owen's thigh.

Then it stopped.

Owen actually felt _relieved_ for a second before Jack hit him again, right on the skin he'd just abused. Since Owen _was_ gagged, he allowed himself to yell into the gag, and that did nothing to stop Jack from hitting him again. This blow fell on Owen's unscratched thigh, but Owen didn't even have time to think of that as merciful before Jack hit his left thigh again. Two more blows landed, one on each thigh, and then Owen felt Jack's ungloved hand on his less abused thigh, and tensed just on time for Jack to run the spikes deep into Owen's flesh and pull them down. Owen felt tears stinging his eyes, and for a second, he thought about pressing the button and ending it. _Ten_, dammit. Jack was pushing him, though, and Owen was going to let him. He took seven more blows and one more good scratching before his left leg collapsed and his weight shifted to his wrists, causing him to drop the remote.

Jack stopped, true to his word, and he sighed. Jack climbed onto the bed, but rather than hand Owen the remote again, he removed the gag. ″I think that's enough of that, for now,″ he said. He freed Owen's wrists, but he didn't remove the blindfold. ″Down,″ he said gently, leading Owen down to his hands and knees and then nudging Owen to lie down on the bed. Owen obeyed without fuss, but he tensed when he felt Jack's hand rubbing his back.

″We don't need to do that,″ Owen said.

″Yes,″ Jack said sternly, ″We do.″

Owen grunted to make his displeasure known, but he stayed still and took the petting from Jack's soft, ungloved fingers. They didn't go anywhere near his legs, and that was the important thing.

Owen's stomach growled. ″I haven't eaten since breakfast,″ Owen admitted.

″You must be hungry,″ Jack said.

″I am.″ Owen waited a second, and Jack didn't volunteer, so Owen assumed that the only way he was getting it was if he asked: ″Can I have some food?″

″In a little bit,″ Jack said. And though Owen wasn't aware that he'd had any outward reaction to this decision, Jack quickly added: ″You'll be okay.″

″I'll be okay,″ Owen granted, ″but I wont be happy.″

″Would you be happy if I fed you?″ Jack asked.

Owen thought that his silence answered the question for him, but Jack, apparently, didn't:

″Answer me, please.″ His voice didn't get much sterner, though. He was teasing.

″Probably not,″ Owen said.

″That's what I thought,″ Jack said. This pet went lower than the others, over Owen's arse cheeks. ″Brat.″

″Sorry,″ Owen said. ″Should have warned you.″

″That you're a brat? I knew.″

″Oh?″

″Any Dom who says he didn't is either very inexperienced or lying, Owen. It's pretty obvious.″

Owen grunted again.

Jack sighed. He moved on the bed, and then he grabbed Owen by the hair and gently lifted Owen's head and moved it until Owen knew that his face was pressed against naked skin.

Owen took a deep breath. He knew what was coming.

″I'll tell you what,″ Jack said. ″Start here. Show me that you're eager to please, and then I'll feed you so that you have more energy for what's coming next.″

'What's coming next' sounded ominous, but there was no point in worrying about that now. Owen was quite satisfied with the deal Jack had offered him, and he expressed this by immediately beginning to explore with his tongue rather than his hands. The first lick landed on Jack's thigh, Owen was fairly certain, but the next found its target. Owen knew the shape of a cock and the little sigh of pleasure from Jack confirmed it. It was only then that Owen brought his hands up to rub Jack's massive balls while Owen's tongue kept licking away at Jack's cock. Owen kept as silent as possible himself, so that he could hear Jack's breathing and soft moans. Once Jack was properly excited, Owen decided it was time to take Jack's cock into his mouth.

Jack was letting Owen maintain a great deal of control, at the moment. That was nice. Owen had played with Doms who'd held his head and shoved their cocks in exactly as for as they wanted their cocks to go while Owen gagged, and that had been satisfying in its own way, but it hadn't been_nice_. Jack was being nice to Owen, so Owen was going to be nice to Jack. Owen suppressed his own gag reflex and took as much of Jack's cock as he could into his mouth. He sucked and hummed as if he were already eating something delicious, and Jack gasped and moaned in response.

The blindfold was frustrating for Owen. Owen had been taught to look up and meet a man's eyes every now and again while he was sucking him off. Not being able to do that now felt a bit like Owen was breaking a rule. He did that a lot, but not usually _that_ rule. But that wasn't Jack's rule, clearly. Jack had different rules. Owen would have to get used to those rules. Tonight. Maybe beyond tonight. Maybe.

Jack came, and Owen swallowed every drop of it and then licked Jack's cock for second. The whole point, after all, was to prove that he needed food.

Jack sighed happily. ″Good boy,″ Jack said. Then, he moved out from under Owen and said ″Stay here.″

Owen did. Jack didn't leave the room, so he must have brought food. After a few minutes of activity on the other side of the room, Jack returned to the bed.

″It's not dinner,″ Jack said. ″Dinner is still going to be later. But we'll have a snack.″

That was fine by Owen. ″Thank you,″ Owen said. He reached up to take his blindfold off, and Jack stopped him.

″That stays on,″ Jack said sternly.

″How am I supposed to eat while blindfolded?″ Owen asked.

″Open your mouth.″

Owen hesitated. He wasn't sure he liked where this was going. Still, he wanted food. He opened his mouth.

He felt a spoon slip past his lips and then he tasted yogurt. He closed his mouth as Jack pulled the spoon out, and then he ate.

″There's fruit, too,″ Jack told him, ″and we're going to eat it all just like this.″

″I'd rather do it on my own,″ Owen said, doing his best to keep his tone from sounding insolent.

″I know you would,″ Jack said. ″You're very independent. That's why we're going to do it like this. It'll do you some good to actually have to rely on someone else.″

Owen frowned, but he didn't object.

″Now eat up,″ Jack said, putting another spoonful into Owen's mouth. ″The night is young, and I have a lot of toys I want us to play with.″


	4. Chapter 4

Title: Beginnings  
Summary: Prequel to ″Reconciliation.″ Jack's first time with each of his subs.  
Rating: AO for graphic sex, violence, and mature themes.  
Fic Word Count: 34,444  
Fic Pairings: Jack Harkness/Toshiko Sato, Jack Harkness/OFC, Suzie Costello/Toshiko Sato, Jack Harkness/Suzie Costello/Toshiko Sato, Jack Harkness/Owen Harper, Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones, Jack Harkness/Gwen Cooper/Rhys Williams  
Fic Contains: biting, blood play mention, blowjobs, bondage, caning, canon character death mention, casual drug use discussion, clamps, cunnilingus, Dom controlling a sub's clothing, exhibitionism, Fetish clothes, fingering, first time with a man, gags, handjobs, one night stands, orgasm denial, PIV sex, sensory deprivation (blindfolds), sexuality discussion, spanking, threesomes, vampire gloves, violence mention, voyeurism  
Fic Warnings: canon character death discussion, casual racism (outside of the main pairing), fetishization (outside of the main pairing), suicide contemplation, unwanted non-sexual touches (outside of the main pairing)

* * *

Chapter Number: Four  
Chapter Word Count: 6,403  
Chapter Pairings: Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones  
Chapter Contains: canon character death mention, spanking, handjobs, first time with a man  
Chapter Warnings: casual drug use discussion

* * *

If Ianto had known that Jack was coming over, he would have put some jeans on. He hadn't worn less than a suit in front of Jack since Jack had hired him, and he felt oddly exposed in tracksuit bottoms and an old t-shirt. "Sir," he said, "It's eleven at night."

Jack nodded, and as he did, a drop of rain water fell from his hair and ran down his face. "It's also raining. Can I come in?"

Ianto stepped back and waved his maybe-boss into his flat. "Let me get you a towel..." He delivered on the promise while Jack slipped his coat off and hung it on the rack, Jack dried his hair, then hung the towel on the coat rack at Ianto's direction. Jack refused an offer of tea, and they sat awkwardly on opposite ends of Ianto's sofa.

"I didn't wake you, did I?" Jack asked.

Ianto shook his head.

"Good." Jack sighed. "Ianto, do you want to come back to work?"

Ianto shut his eyes. Jack had put him on indefinite suspension with pay two weeks ago. He'd said they both needed time to cool off before they discussed Ianto's future with Torchwood. He'd been right. Still, Ianto had expected to be called into the base to have this discussion, not for Jack to turn up in the middle of the night soaked in rain water and expect a spontaneous chat on the sofa. This seemed highly impulsive, to Ianto. He did want to stay, though. Torchwood was all he had left. He took a deep breath, opened his eyes, and nodded. "Yes. I do, sir."

Jack smiled a little. "I want you back, too," he said. "We need to make some things clear, though. Nothing like this can ever happen again."

"Of course not, sir."

"There have to be rules. First of all, no more secrets."

"What could I possibly be hiding that's even close to what I _was_ hiding?"

"Probably nothing. That's not the point."

"Oh?"

Jack sighed. "The point is that I can't trust you any more. So you are going to earn my trust back with complete honesty about absolutely everything. You are never going to lie to me again, and whenever you find yourself thinking that you'd rather I didn't know something, you will immediately tell me that thing. I don't care what it is: who you're fucking, a secret love of chickflicks, petty crime that you got away with ten years ago... You've lost the right to keep secrets. If you find yourself thinking even for a second that you'd rather I didn't know something, consider yourself obligated to tell me."

Ianto shifted uncomfortably, but nodded. "I deserve that. Alright. Er. At the moment, I'm not fucking anyone, I really _don't_ care for most chickflicks, and the time that I got caught shoplifting wasn't the first time I'd ever done so, but it was the last. I also smoked weed." He shifted slightly. "Never got caught for that one." He stared at Jack with a blank face and internally assured himself that his ambiguous past-tense verb didn't count as a lie, or even a secret. He _had_ just told Jack.

Jack smirked. "When?"

_Shit_. Okay. Jack really didn't trust him any more. Or maybe he just knew. Ianto had never consented to a drug test, so he'd assumed one hadn't been done, but Owen had taken blood as a standard part of Ianto's physical, when Ianto was first hired. Ianto didn't really know what tests Owen had ran on it or what he'd found, intentionally or accidentally. (Owen had told him that it was "Mostly just to make sure you're actually human, and so that we have your DNA on file if we ever need it." He'd never said anything more about it to Ianto, so Ianto had assumed he was in the clear.) Ianto hadn't exactly gotten high _that morning_, but how long were traces of marijuana detectable in the blood? It had to be at least a week, and that would have done it. Ianto really didn't smoke often any more, but if anything ever counted as 'extenuating circumstances,' the fall of Torchwood One and Lisa death had to.

Ianto swallowed to wet his suddenly dry throat. "Every day, as a teenager," he said. "Then... occasionally, these last few years. But it'll never happen again if—"

"It clearly isn't affecting your job performance," Jack said. "So I really don't care. Just don't come into work high and don't hide it from me."

Ianto sighed with relief right in front of Jack, before he realized what he'd done and felt stupid for it. It was probably a bit premature, too. This rule had been in place for thirty seconds and Jack had already caught Ianto in a not-quite-lie. "I'm sorry, sir," Ianto said.

Jack smiled, a little bit. "Don't be sorry. That was painless." Then he wiped the smile off and cleared his throat. "Second, nothing living and nothing more technologically advanced than your cell phone enters the base without my knowledge and consent. That includes you. If you're at the base, I'd better know, and I'd better know exactly what you're bringing inside."

"Understood." That one was easier. Much easier.

"Good," Jack said. Then he looked down, sighed, and looked back up to meet Ianto's eyes. "Do you blame me for her death?"

"No," Ianto said. He'd tried to. He'd _really_ tried to because he'd been very angry and Jack Harkness was a much easier target than the cybermen or the universe in general. It hadn't stuck. If there was a human being alive that Ianto still blamed, it was himself.

"Can I trust you?" Jack asked.

"You just said you couldn't, any more."

"Do you _want_ me to be able to trust you?"

"Yes."

"And do you trust me?"

Ianto nodded. "Yes." Jack deserved that. He'd never lied to Ianto, that Ianto knew of, and even when Ianto was betraying the team and risking the destruction of the entire human race, Jack had saved Ianto's life more than once.

"Good. You're suspended for two more weeks."

Ianto hesitated, but decided it probably wouldn't hurt to ask: "Why?"

"Because I need the records to show that I've done something, and because I think these last two weeks apart have been good for us both and I think two more where we don't see each other every day will be good for us too."

"... That's fair," Ianto said, though he noted the wording. Was Jack planning on seeing him again before he returned to work? "And thank you for the second chance. Really."

Jack nodded. "A girl that I loved... Well, I can't say that I wouldn't have done the same thing, in your position. And it doesn't seem like the sort of situation that's ever going to come up again."

"I can't imagine so," Ianto said.

Jack nodded again, then sucked his teeth. "How do you _you_ feel about the whole thing? Honestly."

Ianto shrugged. "Empty. Guilty. Angry. Trapped. Hopeless. Terrified. Empty. It all comes in phases."

Jack nodded. "I'm sorry." Then he appeared to be considering something, straightened up a bit, and said, "Ianto, you've got your job back. That's settled. So just answer my next few questions honestly. Do you know what my relationship with Tosh and Owen is? My... non-professional relationship, I mean?"

"I understand that you're all having sex. And Suzie too, before she died?" Jack nodded. "And that it's... kinky?" Ianto paused. Jack nodded again. Then Ianto smirked, looked away from Jack, and blushed furiously.

"What?" Jack asked, smiling a bit himself.

Ianto hesitated. "You said I have to tell you anything that _I_ don't want you to know, but do I have to tell you things that _you_ probably don't want to know?"

"What kind of things?"

"... Rumors that were going around at Torchwood One... kind of things... Just... They said you'd converted an entire floor of the base into a sex dungeon."

Jack's face froze for a second.

"You didn't, did you?! Because I looked and—"

"You _looked_?" Jack asked, laughing. "For a secret, under-ground sex dungeon?" He took a deep breath and got his laughter under control. "What would you have done if you'd actually found one?"

"Don't know; never did."

"You wouldn't have," Jack said, smiling. "I don't actually have enough toys to fill one. I have enough toys to fill one drawer of my dresser. That's it."

"But you do... actually physically hurt them sometimes? Whenever they do something you don't like?"

"With their consent," Jack said calmly. "And within boundaries that we've already discussed, and if it's a big punishment then generally only if they accept it."

"... Oh."

"What do you think of that?" Jack asked.

Ianto squirmed a little bit. "It's not my place to judge, sir... It doesn't make me uncomfortable at work. I've known the whole time and if they're okay with it..."

"I wasn't asking what you thought of it for Tosh and Owen."

"... Oh." Ianto squirmed a bit more. "I think... it's interesting? I never gave it much thought before coming here, but then seeing you with Tosh and Owen and Suzie... It's raised a few questions?"

"What sort of questions?"

Ianto hesitated again. Lots of questions. Questions about how it worked. Questions about whether or not it was really so pleasurable. Questions about _why_ it was so pleasurable, if it was.

Jack sighed. "I didn't actually come here to talk about your job. That was just something we needed to get out of the way first, so you wouldn't feel like I was offering you a deal or anything. The truth is, Ianto... you're cute."

Ianto swallowed hard. "I'm so cute... you'd like to try some of your toys on me?"

"No," Jack said soothingly. "You're so cute, I'd like to get you involved in the more fun group activities. That said, you've recently done something that I know you can't feel good about, and that _I_ don't feel good about, and I think a good spanking might make us both feel better and give you a chance to test the waters for this sort of relationship before you dive in."

"Tell me more," Ianto said. He wasn't ready to make a decision about whether or not to _do_ anything, just yet, but he wanted to keep talking about it. "What do I do? What do you do? How much does it hurt? What happens after? Do I have to call you 'Master'? Do I have to have sex with Owen? Do I have to know the first thing about how to give a blowjob or how to have anal sex, because I've never actually—"

"Can you take a deep breath, please?" Jack said.

Ianto obeyed. There we go. Obeying Jack. That wasn't so bad, was it? And he did it at work all the time. He just wasn't sure how he felt about it when the consequences for disobedience were getting _hit_ rather than getting fired.

"Let's start with tonight," Jack said, and his utterly calm voice helped Ianto relax. "What I'm picturing is you getting naked, me touching you and kissing you a bit to warm you up, then you lying down over my lap, probably on this sofa for the sake of both of our comforts, and me hitting you with my bare hands. I would _like_ to make you cry, but that's pretty intense for your first experience."

Ianto's stomach did a back-flip, but something within him wanted to see this out. Tonight, at least. He'd regret it if he didn't at least try it. "Why?" he asked. Then he swallowed hard and tried again. "Why do you want to make me cry?"

"Fair question," Jack said. He thought about it for a moment. "Because I'd make Tosh or Owen cry, first of all. It's an appropriate level of severity for what you've done. Second of all, because it's not just about pain. Humiliation and vulnerability are important too, and you'll experience plenty of both when you cry." Ianto squirmed. _When_ he cried. Jack was perfectly confident of his ability to make Ianto do so. Ianto was pretty confident of Jack's ability to make Ianto do so, too. "Finally, it's about domination. If I can make your body do something you don't want it to do... Well, it sends a message home."

Ianto nodded. "So what do _you_ get out of this? Do you just like hurting people?"

"No," Jack said. "I like being in control, and I like the trust my subs put in me by letting me hurt them sometimes. I inflict pain to maintain that control—and sometimes for fun because some subs like it—and they trust me not to abuse my right to hurt them. It's a power trip. I won't pretend otherwise."

"So... what would abusing that power actually look like? Sorry about all the questions."

"No! I love that you're asking so many questions! I want you to understand this completely. Even if you decide that you don't want to join us or even try it, I think it's best if you understand the nature of the relationship I have with Tosh and Owen. What constitutes abuse depends a lot on what the function of pain is in the relationship or even the specific encounter. If a sub isn't a masochist and the only function of the pain is to punish disobedience, it would be abuse of my power to inflict more pain than was necessary or called for. That's why I try not to resort to violent punishments when I'm angry, beyond a couple of swats on the ass to make the sub understand that they really are in trouble, and if they're still doing the thing that's upsetting me, that they need to knock it off immediately. Non-violent punishments can be taken too far too, of course, but I find it easier to pace myself and calm down when I'm not being violent. Now, when a sub likes pain and I'm hurting them for fun, then it's just a matter of making sure they're still having fun as the situation escalates. I have to know their pain threshold and I have to know how to read their reactions. If they're supposed to be having fun and they're not, I've crossed the line and it's an abuse of the power they've given me. Of course, no matter what the pain is for, though, I have to make sure I'm not injuring them and that the encounter is fully consensual. That means that they have to be both physically capable of using a safeword, and emotionally comfortable doing so. If they're _not_ both of those things, I'm abusing them. I also pay attention to body language and make sure my subs aren't freezing up."

"And you'd do all of that for me? You'd make sure I was okay?"

"Of course. My most important job as a Dom is to always be sure my subs are okay."

So Ianto could stop it at any time if he tried it and decided he didn't like it, and Jack would be _concerned_ by negative reactions rather than encouraged by them. Good. That was a comfort. "Why is the safeword necessary? Why can't I just say 'Stop'?"

"Because context changes meaning, and that creates confusion unless we invent new language to accommodate our circumstances. For example, if I were having vanilla sex with someone and she said 'Please don't scratch me,' she would mean 'You do not have permission to scratch me,' and I would have a moral obligation not to scratch her. However, if _Tosh_ says 'Please don't scratch me,' in the context of our relationship, the meaning is much closer to what she means when she says 'Please give me next Friday off so I can visit family in London.' It's a request for a favor. I'm well within my right to refuse the request. Even though Tosh might not necessarily _want_ me scratching her, I still have permission to do it. I might scratch her anyway, if I'm punishing her, and that's fine because she's not _supposed_ to like her punishments and I have no moral obligation to honor her preferences when I'm punishing her. However, if she says 'Hirano-ku,' her safeword, _that_ means 'You do not have permission to do this,' and I have a moral obligation to stop. We need safewords because even something like 'No, don't!' or 'Stop!' does not necessarily mean 'You are not allowed to do this,' if our relationship is built on you surrendering bodily autonomy to me. That said, if you start yelling things like 'Stop!' and 'No!' I will pause and ask you if you need your safeword."

"Okay... How do we pick a safeword?"

Jack shrugged. "Do you follow football?"

"Not really."

"What's your least favourite football team?"

"The robins."

"That'll work."

"Really? 'Robins'?"

Jack shrugged again. "Just don't suddenly get into football. Or tell me if you do and we'll pick a new one."

Ianto shrugged. "Alright."

"So. Back to what actually happens if I spank you. Once I've got you really crying, I'll stop and touch you gently until you calm down a little. Then you're probably going to want to move out of that position, so I'll let you do that. I will want to cuddle with you at least a little to make sure we're okay. If you took the punishment well, I'll thank you and praise you for that. If you didn't take it well, we'll calmly talk about what went wrong."

Ianto nodded. "That doesn't sound so bad." None of this did, honestly. Every time Jack Harkness had been called to London for a meeting, the rumors had exploded. None of them had mentioned cuddling.

"It shouldn't. That part is all about calming down after the punishment."

Ianto shifted in his seat again. "... and then sex?"

"My preference is to have sex either during or immediately after a significant punishment, yes. But don't worry! That should never be the scary part. I'll teach you how to do anything new we decide to try. You're not the first lover I've ever had who's never sucked a cock or had anal sex before. Tonight, though, I think we can just stick with handjobs. It's easier."

"Alright," Ianto said, and he really did feel more at ease about it. It was good to know he wasn't expected to already be an expert in cock-sucking. He hadn't revised for that exam.

Jack took a deep breath. "What haven't we covered yet? Oh! Calling me 'Master!' No. Don't do that. I would prefer that the way we address each other not really change. I might occasionally say 'Good boy!' or 'Bad boy!' to let you know whether or not I'm happy with you, but for the most part, I'm not fond of pet names or titles or anything. I'm going to keep calling you 'Ianto,' and you should feel free to call me 'Jack.' Tosh and Owen both do."

Ianto nodded. "Do I have to have sex with Owen? Am I allowed to have sex with other people? How does this relationship work when we're apart from each other?"

"What I would like to do," Jack said, "Is spank you, cuddle you, and have sex with you, and not think much farther than that right now. Once we're through _that_, we'll see how you feel about making this a full-time relationship, and if you're interested in doing that, we'll work out the specifics. Sex with anyone but me is optional, I promise, but I wouldn't make you do it until you were ready, even if you agreed to it. One new cock at a time is probably enough right now. I get that. I've got a whole list of stuff we'll need to talk about later, should you decide to join Tosh and Owen, and that's on it, but I don't want to worry about it right now. Sound reasonable?"

Ianto laughed. "I was prepared for a sex dungeon filled with Medieval torture instruments. This sounds _incredibly_ reasonable." Even having sex with Owen wasn't really terrifying for him, if he had some time to get acclimated to having sex with men first, though Jack.

"And you do want to try it tonight, bearing in mind that saying 'No,' will not affect your job in any way?"

Ianto took a deep breath. "Yes. I do."

Jack smiled. "Good. Now, the first thing I need you to do... is kiss me."

Ianto grinned and blushed ridiculously. He'd been trying so hard to wrap his mind around letting Jack spank him, it hadn't fully registered with him that Jack was going to kiss him. "Right. That's... probably the best place to start." He took a deep breath. "I've never done this before, either."

Jack laughed a little and slid across two sofa cushions to close the space between them. "Ianto," he said calmly, "It's okay. I know you've kissed women before. It's exactly the same."

"Are you sure about that?" Ianto asked. "I have a friend who... Well, he'd know, and he says it's different." Ianto hadn't had time to ask his 'friend' to elaborate on just _how_ it was different, but the fluttering in his stomach was all Ianto needed to know that he definitely believed that it was, and it would make sense for Jack to tell him that it wasn't even if it was, because Jack was trying to calm him down.

"Your friend is full of shit," Jack said, and he looked perfectly sincere.

Well, Ianto's 'friend' was Owen Harper. The chances seemed higher than normal that he _was_ full of shit. Ianto took a deep breath, leaned in, and pressed his lips to Jack's. Jack took over from there, and Ianto relaxed and enjoyed letting Jack dominate him _gently_, for the moment. This really was better than if Jack's very first act of domination over Ianto had caused Ianto pain.

Jack pulled away and smiled at Ianto. "Good," he said. "Do you want me to undress you, or would you be more comfortable doing it yourself?"

"I'd be more comfortable doing it myself," Ianto said.

He decided it was best not to give himself too much time to think about it. His hands were steady as they lifted his shirt above his head, and perfectly steady still as he shoved his bottoms and his pants down to his ankles and stepped out of them. He kicked them off to the side and stood before Jack, completely naked. For the briefest second, he got the urge to cover himself or turn away, but he fought it, held his ground, and let Jack look. And Jack _did_ look, slowly and lustfully. He _didn't_ look like he was judging Ianto or comparing him to other lovers, and that made Ianto feel a bit better about doing this.

When Jack had seen all he wanted to see, he slid toward the center of the sofa and patted the cushion next to him. Ianto sat down, so close to Jack that the outsides of their thighs were touching, and waited to be grabbed and pulled over Jack's knees.

That didn't happen, right away. Jack's hand went to his face, first. Ianto held still and held Jack's eyes. Then Jack ran his hand down Ianto's neck, over his shoulder, and to his upper arm. Ianto flashed an awkward smile to assure Jack that he was fine. Jack felt Ianto's muscles, for a second, then he moved over to Ianto's chest, ran his fingers over one of Ianto's nipples—Ianto's breath hitched, but he flashed Jack another smile—then the other. Then Jack's hand moved south. He went smoothly down Ianto's stomach and even touched a bit of Ianto's public hair. Ianto shut his eyes and took a slow breath, but Jack's hand didn't go where Ianto thought it was going. It moved at the last possible second over to Ianto's thigh, and caressed it gently before completely leaving Ianto's body.

"Good," Jack said softly. Ianto wasn't really sure if it was a statement about his body or his behavior, but it was reassuring. Jack tilted Ianto's chin slightly and leaned in to steal another kiss, and Ianto relaxed and gave it to him. It was easy, when he didn't think too much about it. Just like kissing a woman.

"Now," Jack said, "Lean over..." He nodded to his own lap.

Ianto took a deep breath, and as he bent over, he felt Jack's hands on his chest and back, guiding him into position. That was kind of nice. It at least helped him be sure he was where Jack wanted him.

Then he was there, completely naked, with his face buried in own arm rest and his arse propped up on Jack's legs.

"Ready?" Jack asked.

Ianto laughed a little. No. He really wasn't. "Yes, sir."

He wished he had a mirror on the wall or something so that he could _see_ Jack hit him. Instead, he just had the sound of skin on skin and then the pain. He jumped and gasped as soon as contact was made, but the pain actually _worsened_ after Jack lifted his hand. The throbbing that followed felt harder than the hit.

"Shhhhhh," Jack said, and he rubbed two small circles into Ianto's back. "Yeah, it actually does hurt. Do you still want to do this?"

Ianto swallowed hard. "Yes," he said. This time, he actually felt like he _was_ ready. He now knew exactly what was coming, and he knew that, even though it would hurt, he'd survive it.

The next couple of hits got gasps from Ianto, but nothing more, and then he clenched his teeth and started taking them in silence. Jack was not gentle, and nor was he particularly slow. Just as the first painful throb came, Jack's hand would fall again, and soon Ianto's entire arse was a warm mass of pain and he could hardly distinguish the throbs from the actual blows. That was when he noticed his breathing getting heavier, and Jack had to grip him firmly on the thighs a few times to remind him not to wiggle so much. Jack asked twice more whether or not Ianto _really_ wanted to go on, once the first time he had to correct Ianto's squirming and the second time as Ianto started to whimper, and both times Ianto assured him that he did and the blows immediately resumed without a hint of mercy. When Ianto caught himself blinking hard, he half-hated himself. Crying. He'd agreed to that. It was a relief to feel the tears finally coming. This would end when he cried. He'd take humiliation and vulnerability over pain. He felt weak for being so willing to cry, so quickly. It was childish and humiliating, and Ianto had never been more ready to be humiliated in his life.

He'd swear Jack's hits got _harder_ when Jack realized he was about to break. That was probably good. It made him break even faster. He pulled his head out of the armrest and let Jack see as the first of the tears fell, and Jack's hits got harder still until the tears were rolling down Ianto's face at a rate he couldn't have controlled if he'd wanted to. The beating stopped, though the throbbing did not, and true to Jack's word, his hand return to Ianto's back to gently stroke and rub it until Ianto got his tears under control. Once his eyes were dry, he got up onto his knees and Jack pulled Ianto into his chest.

It all felt _good_ in a way that getting spanked shouldn't have. It was painful, yes, quite painful, but it also felt like the closure that Ianto had desperately needed for weeks now. He'd been punished for everything that he'd done wrong and someone else had complete control over the situation and now Ianto was just _crying_ and it wasn't really about the pain. He buried his head in Jack's shirt and enjoyed the feeling of Jack's hands stroking his sides and his back and running through his hair.

When the tears stopped completely and his breathing evened out, Jack kissed his head. "You took that really well," Jack said quietly. "_Thank you_. Good boy."

Good. Ianto had been good. Jack was _happy_ with him, and knowing that felt like something wrong with the universe had finally been righted. It was just _one_ thing, one small thing in a sea of flaws in Ianto's reality, but he could feel the difference now that it had been righted. He wanted Jack's approval. He'd been telling himself for months now that he _needed_ Jack's approval to save Lisa, but lying in Jack's arms right now, it was clear that it was so much more than that. He wanted Jack's approval for his own sake, because he liked Jack and wanted Jack to think highly of him. This felt_nice_.

Ianto didn't know if he was supposed to answer or not. He didn't know how to answer. He just held Jack tightly and hoped that Jack would get the message.

Jack kissed his head. "I know that was hard," he went on. "But you were very good. I would _love_ to see you after a little bit of training..."

Ianto made a non-committal noise, because he wanted Jack to know he was listening but he still wasn't sure what to say and he was only about 65% confident in his ability to actually form coherent words anyway.

Jack held him a bit tighter and kissed him again. "How are you feeling?" he asked.

Ianto pulled away from Jack enough to look up at him, but not enough to break out of his arms. He opened his mouth to answer, but... fuck. How was he feeling? How was he supposed to be feeling? What were his options? He was in pain. He didn't necessarily wish he weren't in pain. He didn't want Jack to let go of him. He didn't have the vocabulary for this. He felt... "Better," he said.

"Better?" Jack repeated.

"Than before you came over," Ianto clarified. "I... I'm glad we did this." Quickly, he added on, "I don't know what that means."

"Shhhhh." Jack kissed him, on the lips again. No tongue. Just soft and comforting. "You don't have to know, right now. I just wanted to be sure you were okay."

Ianto nodded and rested his head against Jack's shoulder again. "I'm okay."

"Good," Jack said softly. "Do you want to go on?"

Ianto hesitated. Sex. Going on meant sex. He did want to, but—

"It doesn't have to be right now," Jack said. "You can have as long as you want, and we can go as slow as you want, when we do get started. I just need to know if you feel up for it at all. Just tell me what you need."

"A few more minutes," Ianto said. "Then slowly."

"Good boy," Jack said, stroking down Ianto's neck. "Thank you. I'll get better at reading you, I promise... If you want to do this again, I mean."

Ianto wanted to do this again. He didn't want to say that right now. He didn't want to _talk_ right now. He wrapped his own arms around Jack's waist and hugged Jack back as he buried his face in Jack's shirt. Jack held him tight started talking to him again:

"I'm really glad you wanted to try this... And glad you'll be back at work soon... I've missed you."

Ianto froze for a second, then nuzzled Jack a little. He didn't really believe that, but it felt nice to hear Jack say that. They cuddled for several minutes, Jack stroking him and whispering soothingly to him all the while, until Ianto was calm, and then, even though his arse was sore and his skin felt dry from all the salty tears, he was ready to go on. He shifted so that he was supporting more of his weight than Jack was, though he was still straddling Jack, and he looked up at Jack.

"... Slowly," he said again.

Jack nodded. His hand went down to Ianto's thigh, carefully avoiding the tender areas on Ianto's arse. He ran his right hand down the outside of Ianto's left thigh. Ianto stayed calm, and at that, Jack went over Ianto's knee, up Ianto's inner thigh, and then, with one more look at Ianto to make sure everything was okay, he touched Ianto's cock.

Ianto's breath hitched. Jack paused for a moment, until Ianto released the breath and nodded slightly, and then Jack's hand slowly closed around Ianto's cock and stroked down. Ianto sucked in a breath and his cock reacted instantly, stiffening in Jack's hand. He stroked up and then down once more, then he stopped, grabbed Ianto's hands, and put them on his own trousers.

"Together," he said. "Just get me out, and then it's easy. Just like touching yourself, only from a slightly different angle."

That sounded simple enough. Ianto was able to undo Jack's belt buckle without any problems, but he noticed that his fingers weren't exactly steady as he undid the button on Jack's trousers, and then he fumbled with Jack's zip pathetically for a moment because he couldn't get a literal or a proverbial grip.

"Ianto," Jack said, putting a hand on Ianto's shoulder and smiling. "Deep breath. It's okay."

Ianto took a single deep breath, then pulled down Jack's zip. He opened up Jack's trousers, slipped his hand in, and located Jack's cock easily. He didn't pull Jack's pants or trousers down. He just lifted Jack's cock out. He managed not to _actually_ sigh with relief when he realized that Jack was uncircumcised, like Ianto was, though the impulse was there. He stroked Jack, and the grunt of pleasure Jack gave in response was reassuring, as was the immediate return of Jack's hand to Ianto's member. Ianto leaned forward and rested his head on Jack's shoulder, which seemed to be the easiest way to give them both plenty of space, to keep the feeling as intimate and romantic as possible, and also to keep all weight off Ianto's stinging arse but still not put too much pressure on his knees.

Jack was right; It _was_ a lot like touching himself (the same basic principle, anyway) and actually better, in some respects. Ianto didn't find his own moans nearly so encouraging, and it was nice to have a hand on his cock that could actually surprise him. Jack let Ianto set the pace for both of them, which Ianto recognized as the easiest way of both honoring Ianto's request that they go slow and encouraging Ianto to speed things up. As Ianto stroked Jack's cock and reflected calmly on how _slight_ the difference in tactile sensations resulting from this strange angle and Jack being slightly larger than he was were, all of the terror for Jack's body melted away. The idea of having Jack's cock _inside of him_ was still a bit... well, Jack had said they wouldn't do that tonight, and Ianto supposed that what he was feeling right now couldn't be any worse than what any of the women he'd slept with had felt before _their_ first times. Ianto was even struck by the thought that Jack was being a much more careful and attentive lover than Ianto probably had been with either of the virgins he'd fucked, though he didn't think he'd exactly been cruel or selfish.

Their hands glided over each other's cocks smoothly until finally Ianto grunted into Jack's shoulder and came into Jack's hand. Ianto finished Jack off with a few more tugs, and they lied there panting in each other's arms. Jack reached up with his clean hand and ran his fingers though Ianto's hair while he whispered a few more praises. Ianto relaxed against Jack's chest in an odd combination of pain and contentedness.

This was weird. He didn't want to stop. He didn't want to question it.

Jack kissed his head. "It's getting late," Jack said. Technically, it had been late when Jack showed up. Now it was getting early.

Ianto took the hint, though. He climbed off Jack, and Jack tucked himself back into his pants and trousers, accepting the mess for what it was.

"When can we meet again?" Ianto asked.

"In a few days," Jack said. "I'll text you with specifics." He stood up and kissed Ianto gently, one last time. "Don't rush into this, okay?"

"Okay," Ianto said, because he didn't feel like he had much choice.

"Have you been sleeping?" Jack asked.

"Not through the night," Ianto admitted.

"Try to sleep through the night for me, please," Jack said as he pulled his coat back on and buttoned it up to help hide the mess on his trousers. Ianto glanced over at this sofa and was pleased to see that the mess he'd have to clean up was relatively small. "Have you been eating?"

"Yes," Ianto said. He'd been good about that one, really. For the first couple of days after her death, he'd needed to be high to eat, but he'd wanted to be high anyway so that hadn't been much of a sacrifice. Around the forth day, his eating habits had returned to normal even when he wasn't high.

"Good," Jack said. He paused for a moment, then said: "Let me know if you miss any meals or find that you can't sleep." Ianto must have looked distressed by the command, because he quickly added, "You won't be in trouble! I just want to know."

Ianto relaxed. "Yes, sir." He'd try to sleep. He really would. He felt oddly as if he _could_ sleep, right now. He hadn't felt that way in while. Not just since Lisa's death, since... really, since the Battle at Canary Wharf. He'd slept since then, of course—Canary Wharf had been _months_ ago—but it hadn't been easy. He felt, for the first time in months, as if sleeping might be easy, and even enjoyable.

"Thank you," Jack said, smiling. "Good night!"

"Good night!" Ianto said, and it had been and it was.


	5. Chapter 5

Title: Beginnings  
Summary: Prequel to ″Reconciliation.″ Jack's first time with each of his subs.  
Rating: AO for graphic sex, violence, and mature themes.  
Fic Word Count: 34,444  
Fic Pairings: Jack Harkness/Toshiko Sato, Jack Harkness/OFC, Suzie Costello/Toshiko Sato, Jack Harkness/Suzie Costello/Toshiko Sato, Jack Harkness/Owen Harper, Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones, Jack Harkness/Gwen Cooper/Rhys Williams  
Fic Contains: biting, blood play mention, blowjobs, bondage, caning, canon character death mention, casual drug use discussion, clamps, cunnilingus, Dom controlling a sub's clothing, exhibitionism, Fetish clothes, fingering, first time with a man, gags, handjobs, one night stands, orgasm denial, PIV sex, sensory deprivation (blindfolds), sexuality discussion, spanking, threesomes, vampire gloves, violence mention, voyeurism  
Fic Warnings: canon character death discussion, casual racism (outside of the main pairing), fetishization (outside of the main pairing), suicide contemplation, unwanted non-sexual touches (outside of the main pairing)

* * *

Chapter Number: Five  
Chapter Word Count: 7,999  
Chapter Pairings: Jack/Gwen/Rhys  
Chapter Contains: caning, Dom controlling a sub's clothing, violence mention, blowjobs, threesomes, PIV

* * *

"No, I don't want the fucking coffee!"

Gwen didn't think Owen had actually meant to knock the mug out of Ianto's hand. He'd turned around to wave Ianto off and he'd accidentally hit Ianto, presumably because Ianto was standing much closer than Owen had anticipated, and Ianto had dropped the mug. It shattered on the floor and the coffee seeped around their shoes, and they both glared at each other and seemed to be half a second away from accusing each other of having done that on purpose when Jack snapped them both out of it:

"What the Hell is your problem?!"

Both men went pale and immediately turned to face Jack.

"I'm very sorry, sir! I really should have been more careful—" Ianto said, as Owen said "I just didn't want the fucking coffee and it's not my fault he was—"

"_Stop_." Jack said. Once they'd both obeyed, Jack calmly said, "Now take a deep breath, both of you."

They both did.

"Ianto," Jack said politely, "Will you please clean that up?"

It took Ianto a second to process that Jack wasn't angry at him, but then he nodded. "Of course, sir. Right away."

"Thank you," Jack said. He looked at _Gwen_ for a second and frowned as if her presence was suddenly somehow inconvenient to him, which confused Gwen because she'd had nothing to do with the scene that just unfolded and as far as she was aware she hadn't cocked anything up all day, but before Gwen could figure out a way to ask Jack what his problem was, Jack dismissed the thought and turned back to Owen. He spoke again, this time in a much sterner tone: "Owen, step into my office, please. You and I need to have a talk." Gwen had never been called to Jack's office. Not in that tone of voice. She'd gathered, however, that when Owen was summoned to Jack's office (a fairly regular occurrence), it meant something bad. Owen never seemed terribly distressed coming _out_ of those encounters, but he always looked upset going into them and he did anything he could to get out of them. This time was no exception.

"Jack," Ianto said quickly, shooting a nervous glance at Owen, "That was my fault! Don't—"

"I didn't ask whose fault it was," Jack said, and while he said it, his tone briefly got slightly harder, but then it soften again as he went on: "I don't care about a broken mug. These things happen." He glared at Owen. "Owen. My office. Now." Jack turned and led the way to his office.

Owen went a step or two out of the way to bump into Ianto as he followed.

"I saw that," Jack said, though there was really no way that he could have.

Gwen and Ianto didn't move until Jack and Owen were both out of sight.

"Ugh," Gwen said. "He can be such a child sometimes." Ianto hadn't actually done anything wrong, except perhaps invade Owen's personal space a bit, but that when understandable in light of the fact that he was trying to get Owen's attention and hand Owen something. He hadn't been pushy, but Owen had been absorbed in his work and when he didn't answer when Ianto said he had coffee, Ianto must have assumed, as Gwen had, that Owen hadn't heard him.

Ianto didn't acknowledge that Gwen had spoken. Instead, he looked nervously at Tosh. "Did I just get Owen into trouble?" he asked.

"No," Tosh said, not looking up from the wires she was soldering. "Owen doesn't need any help getting into trouble."

"But I—"

"You might want to do as Jack asked before he gets back out here," Tosh suggested.

Ianto seemed to recognize the wisdom in the suggestion, and so did Gwen, so they both immediately returned to work.

In Gwen's case, what Jack had asked her to do was to read a large stack of reports about Silurians and use her finely tuned detective skills to determine whether or not the half-eaten corpse they'd found earlier that night fit the pattern for Silurian kills. It was extremely dull work, and duller still because once every couple of pages she'd have to stop and ask the rest of the room what sort of creatures lived on the Ninth Moon of Owwebk or how a reptile can learn to speak English. (Having to explain this had done nothing to improve Owen's mood.) Gwen was actually impressed with herself when, upon returning to her work, she made it five whole pages before she realized that she had no idea what "peptide bradykinin potentiators" were, and since the phrase had just come up three different times in one paragraph, it seemed important.

Ianto was fetching some cleaning materials and Tosh didn't know either, so Gwen excused herself and went to find Jack and Owen. She walked right into Jack's office, just on time to see Jack bring a cane down hard on Owen's bare arse.

Owen and Gwen both jumped.

"Four," Owen hissed.

Jack raised the cane, prepared to hit Owen again, but he caught a glimpse of Gwen over his shoulder and stopped.

"You know, there are a lot of social customs in the 21st century that are useless and condescending," Jack said casually. "Knocking is not one of them."

Owen made a noise in the back of his throat, and Jack turned around and hit him again.

Gwen flinched as the cane collided with Owen's already-red skin.

"Five!" Owen said, but he'd barely lifted his hands off Jack's desk when Jack stopped him:

"Don't get up yet! If you can't be patient, you can take an extra hit." Jack sighed and turned back to Gwen. "Owen and I are kind of in the middle of something here."

"...I can see that!" Gwen said. "What is it?"

"None of your business," Jack told her. "If you need either of us, please wait outside. We'll be with you shortly."

Gwen knew that she was gaping at them, but she couldn't actually formulate a proper sentence, so she turned around and walked out of the office, hoping that by the time that they were finished, she'd know what to say.

She stood there and tapped her foot angrily for a minute or two, and then a thought occurred to her, and she rushed back to Tosh and Ianto.

"You knew, didn't you?!" she asked them.

Tosh glanced up from her work, but said nothing.

Ianto debated lying for so long that Gwen would have seen right through him if he'd tried, so he decided on the truth: "Yes."

"How can you be okay with this?!" Gwen said.

"Still trying to figure that out," Ianto said. "I'll let you know when I know."

"Do you really want us to sit around and judge each other's sex lives?" Tosh asked. "Lighten up, Gwen. This is the 21st century..."

Gwen was still processing Ianto's answer, though. "Ianto, what does that mean? Does he hit you too?"

Ianto shrugged. "'Hit' is a very strong word."

"'Hit' is an accurate word," Tosh said. "But it's still none of Gwen's business." Tosh glanced up again to give Gwen a quick dirty look. "Stay out of other people's personal lives. They're not hurting anyone."

"Not hurting anyone?" Gwen repeated. "Should we run that by Owen?!"

"Owen has no comment at this time," Owen said flatly, pushing past Gwen on his way back to his own workstation.

"Remember what we talked about," Jack said sternly, still standing behind Gwen.

Owen muttered something incoherent. Gwen wasn't listening to him anyway. She turned around and glared at Jack.

"Gwen, was there something _you_ wanted to talk to me about?" Jack asked.

"Yeah," Gwen said. "Sexual harassment. Have you ever heard of it?"

"Yes, I've heard of it," Jack said calmly. "It's making _unwelcome_ sexual advances or unwelcome comments of a sexual nature about your employees or coworkers, right? Gwen, as your boss, I'm going to have to ask you to stop that."

"_Me_?!" Gwen said.

"Actually, yes," Tosh said calmly, though she'd stopped looking up from her work.

Gwen gasped and gave Tosh a deeply offended look that Tosh didn't seem to notice at all, and then Gwen redirected her attention to the real victim here: "Owen—"

"No. Comment." Owen was back to work on a severed arm from the scene of the crime.

"Okay, but Ianto—" was not in the room anymore.

Jack didn't look angry. He looked... comforting, and slightly concerned. "Please step into my office, Gwen," Jack said, "We have some things we should talk about, and I want you to try to keep an open mind."

Gwen followed him. She didn't feel like she had much choice. Once they were inside Jack's office, Jack shut the door calmly and walked over to his desk. He didn't sit down, though. He just stood behind it and stared at her for a minute.

Gwen let him stare. _Jack_ was the one who'd wanted to have this conversation. He could start it.

"He likes it," Jack said, after a solid minute of silence. "_They_ like it. I wouldn't do it if they didn't."

"Then why doesn't Owen ever look like he wants to go with you?" Gwen asked. "Why did Ianto feel bad when you went off with Owen? Why were they both so damn nervous?"

"You know," Jack said, "I'm not Ianto, so I can't really speak for him, but I think that his nervousness just _might_ have something to do with the fact that six weeks ago he committed treason against the entire human race and nearly got all of us killed." Jack shrugged. "I'd be on edge too."

"_You hit them_!" Gwen yelled, fighting the urge to punch that smug look off Jack's face. "Would you hit me?!"

"With the way that this conversation is going?" Jack said. "No. Definitely not." Jack sighed. "I don't hit _anyone_ until after we've had a long conversation about _how_ I'm going to hit them, what we both expect to get out of it, and what it means."

Gwen said nothing.

"Haven't you ever wanted something and not wanted it at the same time?" Jack asked. "Ever gotten off on danger?"

Gwen tried to keep her face blank, but Jack smirked like he'd just scored a game-winning goal.

"This is Torchwood," he said, as if Gwen had forgotten. "We are five people in a basement trying to delay the Apocalypse a little bit every day." He smirked. "It's terrifying. Humans shoot at us. Aliens try to eat us. Sometimes we almost get incinerated. Sometimes we almost get converted into emotionless robots. Our most popular retirement plan is a 3x3x8 drawer in our freezer. Second most popular is a memory wipe. None of us would be here if we didn't get off on the danger." He stared right into her eyes. "And you? You were a cop before this. Owen was a doctor—little bit of excitement there, not quite like this—Tosh had a desk job, Ianto was temp... Me, I was a criminal. A good one. There's a lot of money in crime, if you're good at it. A lot of excitement, too. Women like you used to chase me all over the universe." Jack leaned back in his chair. "I miss those days, sometimes. I miss some of those women pretty often."

Gwen was pretty sure her face wasn't blank anymore, but she didn't know what Jack wanted from her, so she didn't say anything.

"It was fun, wasn't it?"

"I never chased you," Gwen said. "Unless you wiped my memory—"

"I signed on with Torchwood long before you were born," Jack said. "Don't worry."

"Don't bullshit me, Jack," Gwen said. "You're what, ten years older than I am? Maybe fifteen."

Jack smirked. "I got lucky, Gwen. My immortality came with an anti-aging patch. I've looked like this for a really long time."

Gwen's face softened. "So how old are you?" she asked.

"That's a rude question. Anyway, I never retconned you, other than that one time. Never met you before that night in the rain. But you chased criminals. Dashed through the night on the heels of Cardiff's worst, never knowing what a dangerous criminal might do to you to keep himself out of a jail cell..."

"I worked in Cardiff, Jack, not Murderville."

"You'd have taken a transfer to Murderville in a second if they'd offered," Jack said. "In fact, you kind of did. You've come a long way in just a few months. You're not the same woman who I caught wandering around murder scenes and secret government bases looking lost." Before Gwen could defend herself, Jack shrugged. "Of course, you don't bring me pizza anymore, either. I miss that." He leaned in closer. "My point, Gwen, is that no one here should understand this better than you and I do. I'm going to take a shot in the dark and say that you're not looking forward to an early grave or a long life as a cyberman?"

"Of course not."

"So quit."

"What?" Gwen said immediately.

"Yeah," Jack said calmly. "You don't like the risk of getting killed... or worse... So you must hate this job, right?"

"No," Gwen said. "I love this job. I just..."

"What about it?"

"What?"

"What exactly do you love about this job?"

"I love protecting people," Gwen said.

"So if I stuck you in a desk job, you'd be fine with that?"

"What?"

"It's still an important part of the job," Jack said. "You'd still be helping people."

"Yeah, but I want to be out where the action is!" Gwen said, and then she paused. "Point taken."

"They don't like being spanked," Jack said, "But I think they would all be very disappointed if I ever stopped. They could tell me to stop at any time they wanted, and they don't." Jack sighed and shrugged. "I think they get other things out of it too. It calms Owen down. Grounds him, I think. I think it's mostly cathartic for Ianto. Tosh seems to like how it heightens emotions and other pleasures, same as me."

"I imagine it's a lot easier to enjoy it on your end," Gwen said.

Jack shrugged. "I used to be where they are."

Gwen sighed. "So, what, do you graduate from being hit to hitting?"

"No," Jack said. "It doesn't work like that. It's more like... there are people I like to dominate, and there are people I like to be dominated by. Sometime people only like one or the other. Some people like both with everyone. I like both at different times and with different people."

"You make it sound so neat and easy," Gwen said.

"No," Jack said. "It's not really neat or easy. But it's also not hurting anyone." Jack sighed. "We're consenting adults doing something that we all feel we're benefiting from. I've been trying to keep it out of your sight and I will continue to do my best in that area, though I'm going to need you to work with me a little bit there. I'm not asking you to get involved. I'm not even asking you to be okay with it. I'm just asking you to live and let live, and don't interrupt when I want to be alone with one of them."

Gwen nodded.

"Are we okay?" Jack asked.

"Yeah," Gwen said, nodding again.

Jack gently steered her toward the door. "Come on." They walked back to the others, and then Jack loudly announced, "Okay, I want everyone to go home for the night." Everyone looked at him as if he couldn't possibly be serious. "I mean it. Tosh, get to a stopping point and stop. Gwen, leave those files as they are. Owen, put the severed limbs in the freezer. Ianto, start locking up. I want you all to go home and get some sleep. We'll regroup at 8:00am and see how this thing looks with fresh eyes."

"It's only 10:00..." Tosh said. 10:00pm was an absolutely unreasonable hour to keep your employees at most workplaces, but at Torchwood, it was normal when they were in the middle of something big. This was why they were all very well paid and had nonexistent social lives. Usually, if they were in the middle of a case as big as this one with leads as cold as their current ones, they'd get dismissed at 3am if they were lucky.

"Go," Jack said. "Now."

Gwen strongly suspected that their early dismissal was due to her outburst, and she had a feeling that everyone else suspected that as well, but Gwen actually appreciated the decision; thanks to her, they were all on edge and none of them were going to be working well. Besides, no one was going to object to getting one last good night of sleep before they really got into this case. It would mean that Jack would be riding their asses that much harder the next day, but Gwen was willing to pay that price. She led the way out the door.

Rhys was already in bed when she got home, but when she climbed in next to him, he rolled over and pulled her close. He wasn't asleep yet.

"I thought you'd be out all night," Rhys said.

"I thought I would be too," Gwen said, snuggling into his arms.

"What's wrong?" Rhys asked.

"Nothing," Gwen said.

"Don't do that. I can hear it in your voice. Is it a case? I understand if you're not allowed to talk about it, but don't lie about it."

Gwen swallowed hard. "No. It's not a case. It's a conversation I had at work today." She rolled over so that she could look into his eyes. "Rhys," she said, "If I asked you to hit me, would you?"

"_What_?!"

"I'm not asking!" Gwen said quickly. "But if I did...?"

"I would _never_ hit you," Rhys said.

"Not even if I asked?"

"No, Gwen!" Rhys sat up slightly and stared down at her. "I don't _want_ to hit you! How did this come up? Who's hitting people at your work?"

"No one," Gwen said, grabbing Rhys' shirt and pulling him down. "It's nothing, really. I'm sorry I brought it up." She sighed. "Let's just go to sleep."

A week went by. Gwen couldn't quite forget about what she'd seen between Owen and Jack, but she got on with her life as normal, save a few fantasies that she didn't take much time to explore. Rhys had certainly shut the whole topic down, for better or for worse. No one at Torchwood mentioned it, either. They found their flesh-eating alien, and things returned to what passed for normal at Torchwood.

It was such a _ridiculous_ thing that brought it all up again.

Ianto walked downstairs with coffee, and Gwen would swear that Jack didn't even look up from the sonic canon he and Tosh were tinkering with before saying, "Ianto, are you supposed to be wearing that?"

Ianto froze. He looked down at his outfit, which was a solid brown thing that Gwen had seen him in maybe once before, and he frowned. "… No..."

Gwen couldn't imagine why not. It was entirely work-place appropriate, and much dressier than anything anyone else, including Jack, was wearing. Didn't Jack like Ianto in suits?

"Want to tell me why you _are_ wearing it?"

"Er..."

"First of all," Jack said, looking up at Ianto and smiling slightly, "Bring me some coffee. Then just be honest with me."

Ianto brought him coffee immediately, and gave Tosh hers while he was over there, but the answer was not forthcoming.

"You've changed your mind about that one?" Jack offered.

Ianto paused for a second, then shook his head almost imperceptibly.

"It's laundry day?" Jack tried.

"No," Ianto said. "I just..."

"Didn't think I was being serious?" Jack offered.

Ianto said nothing.

"Didn't think I'd notice?" Jack continued. "Wanted to see what I would do?"

Ianto looked like he was already in pain. "… Yes to all three, a little bit...?"

Jack was still smiling. "Were you in the middle of anything?"

"No," Ianto said.

Jack looked at Tosh. "You're fine on your own," he said.

It wasn't a question, but Tosh nodded anyway.

Jack put an arm around Ianto's shoulder and started to guide Ianto toward Jack's office. "Let me show you something."

Ianto was tense, but he followed Jack.

Gwen waiting until they were out of ear-shot, and then she couldn't help but look over at Tosh and Owen. "What was that about?"

"Gwen..." Tosh said with a sigh.

"No," Gwen said, "I just mean—His _clothes_? I didn't take Jack for being that petty."

"It's not really about the clothes," Tosh said. "Ianto's new to all of this. Jack is trying to break him in easy. 'Don't wear that,' 'Don't eat these,' etc., and they'll work their way up to more intense training activities."

"They're both testing each other's limits now," Owen said. "Jack makes stupid rules to see if Ianto will obey, Ianto disobeys just to see what Jack will do. From an outsider's view I guess it is sort of petty, but they're just figuring each other out." Owen shrugged. "It's probably the color or the cut or something like that"

"So now he's going to spank Ianto for wearing his own clothes?"

Tosh and Owen exchanged looks that Gwen couldn't read.

"Don't know," Tosh said.

"That wasn't really an 'I'm about to spank you,' tone of voice," Owen said.

Tosh shrugged. "You can never tell sometimes. He'll do _something_, but you'll have to ask Ianto if you want to know what."

Gwen didn't know how to respond to that, so she didn't. They all got back to work, but Gwen couldn't just _stop thinking_ about what might be happening to Ianto downstairs, and Tosh and Owen's answers hadn't really reassured her. He wouldn't be spanked, so what _would_ Jack do to him? What were the alternatives to spanking in today's BDSM world? Why would Ianto even agree to not wear certain clothes just because Jack didn't like them? Gwen would tell Jack to fuck off if he ever told her not to wear any of her clothes.

She thought she would, at least.

On the other hand, the sight and sound of that cane hitting Owen's red backside made a powerful argument.

_Why_?

And why couldn't she get it out of her head?

She needed to hear something bad about it. She needed a reminder that being spanked _hurt_ and that she didn't actually want this.

Ianto was back within the hour. He'd changed into some of Jack's clothes, which didn't quite fit him right, and his hair seemed a little out-of-place, but he otherwise looked no worse for whatever Jack had done to him.

"How was it?" Gwen asked him.

He raised an eyebrow.

"… with Jack," she clarified.

Ianto shrugged. "It could have gone worse."

That was not the answer Gwen had been hoping for. "Did he...?"

"No."

"Then what?"

Ianto smirked. "Why do you ask? I thought you didn't want to see any of this."

"I'm just curious," Gwen said.

Ianto nodded. "You should ask Jack. He's better at explaining it all."

Well, she had permission. It wouldn't be harassment this time. She slipped away into Jack's office, and her stomach did a slight flip when she saw the scissors lying casually on the desk and strips of brown material in the garbage. "Did you..."" she looked from the scissors to the bin.

"That's really none of your business," Jack said calmly.

"It's just that Tosh and Owen didn't know and—"

"Good. It's none of their business either."

Gwen swallowed hard.

Jack looked at her reproachfully. "What do you really want to ask me?"

Gwen knew what she really wanted to ask him. She'd known for about three days, and she suspected that Jack had known for at least four days. She just didn't know how...

"Just ask," Jack said calmly.

"Will you..." Gwen shook her head and sighed. "I don't know the words."

"I'll teach you them, if I need to," Jack promised. "For now, say what you understand."

"I don't want to have sex with you," Gwen said quickly, because it seemed like an important thing to establish. Jack looked shocked and slightly offended, so she quickly clarified, "I mean, I do, in a way, but Rhys wouldn't—I have Rhys. And I don't want to lose Rhys." She and Rhys had the 'What is cheating?' talk shortly after they'd started dating. Gwen had been a party-girl back then, and things had happened. Sex was obviously not allowed, and neither was kissing, but most other things were okay. Spanking had never directly come up, but Gwen couldn't imagine any interpretation of their discussion that would make it out-of-bounds. It had been a long time since they'd had that talk, but Gwen understood the boundaries they'd put in place then to still be in place.

"And I don't want you to lose Rhys," Jack assured her. "No sex unless Rhys is okay with it. Got it."

"Rhys would never—"

"Rhys has never met me before." Jack smirked. "A couple of weeks ago, you thought _you'd_ never, too. Didn't you?"

Gwen dropped her gaze.

She could still _feel_ Jack smirking. "Tell me what you want me to do, Gwen."

"Aren't _I_ supposed to say that to _you_?"

Jack shrugged. "I don't know. Are you?"

Gwen sighed. "Yes, Jack. Tell me what to do."

"I'm your boss. I already do that," Jack pointed out. "The trick is getting you to listen."

"Spank me until I listen," Gwen said. Already, her face hurt and she was fighting the urge to run.

But she _was_ fighting it.

"Spank me," she repeated. "Show me what I can take. I'm curious." She regretted those last two words as soon as she'd said them. She'd been trying to sound cool and casual about the whole thing, but as soon as they were out of her mouth, she heard how unnatural they sounded and how wildly inappropriate they were for this situation. She didn't want him to think that she wasn't taking this seriously.

Jack's smirk got bigger. "That's a dangerous request."

If he was trying to scare Gwen off, it didn't work. In fact, it refocused her. "Weren't you telling me just last week that I clearly get off on danger?"

"I'll do it," Jack said calmly.

"So do it," Gwen said..

"Pick a safeword," Jack said.

Gwen paused. She hadn't thought about that.

"Do you know—"

"—I know what a safeword is, yeah," Gwen said. "I just hadn't thought about one."

"Think fast," Jack said.

"Cornwall," Gwen said.

"Fine," Jack said. He stood up. "I'm going to go get my cane," he said. "I think Rhys might object to me using my hand."

Gwen had a feeling that his motivations for using the cane were slightly less altruistic than that, but she _wanted_ the cane, so she didn't object. Jack was back in a moment, cane in hand, and he sighed and looked her over. "What are you hoping to get out of this?"

"I just want to know what it's like and why everyone else in this building seems to think it's so great," Gwen said. "Why?"

"Because," Jack said. "I think that at best what you're going to get out of this is some good emotional release and some answers, and at worst, what you're going to get out of this is disappointment and pain, which is a bad combination that I can't be held responsible for."

Gwen swallowed hard. "Okay."

"It's going to hurt," Jack said. "For _days_. I don't want to be condescending but I need you to understand that. There will be marks, too. If Rhys sees you naked any time soon, he will know."

Gwen nodded. Part of her was already trying to stitch together half-formed sentences into an explanation for Rhys, but she dismissed those thoughts. Figuring out how to explain this could wait. It would be easier after she knew exactly what she was explaining, anyway.

"Drop your trousers and bend over the desk." His voice had changed. She'd heard him use this tone of voice before, but never on her. It was a tone that promised consequences if he was not obeyed.

She fumbled with her trousers for a minute—three buttons! Why did her trousers need _three_ buttons? That had never been so annoying before—and then bent over the desk in the nearest approximation to Owen's position from last week that she could manage.

"Hands farther apart, feet closer together," Jack said.

Gwen obeyed.

"Use your safeword at any time," Jack said. "But try to last as long as you can. You'll get more out of it."

Then it started.

The first tap of the cane on her arse brought two sensations: The first was, of course, pain. The second was the feeling that overwhelms you in the second between when you step off the diving board and when you hit the water: the feeling that this was probably a bad idea, but there was no turning back now.

The second blow brought only pain, and it shook her out of the state of shock that the first one had put her in and actually made her yelp.

"Stay put," Jack said.

Gwen hadn't noticed she'd moved, but when she looked down, her hands were definitely in different places. She fixed it, and half a second after she'd done so, the third blow landed.

Jack didn't speak to her while he hit her. He stood behind her and slightly to the side, and swung the cane casually. It didn't look like he was hitting her as hard as he'd been hitting Owen, but Gwen was having a difficult time imagining blows more painful than these. Sometime around the eighth, she gave up and swore, but Jack didn't miss a beat in bringing down the ninth blow, or the tenth, or the eleventh.

That was when it really sunk in that Jack wasn't going to stop until one of them decided that she couldn't take any more.

The thirteenth blow was when she decided that she wanted _him_ to be the one to decide that, not because he knew that he'd broken her, but because he was sure that he must have by then. He was holding back on her because he was afraid she was delicate and breakable in a way that Owen wasn't, and she wanted to prove him wrong. She wanted to impress Jack. In a way, she had since she'd met him, but now it was a very conscious and very painful desire.

Gwen was nothing if not strong-willed, though.

The pain moved by degrees from a dull throb to a sting, and the sting got harder with every new blow to an already-abused area. Was Jack hitting harder now? Gwen looked,but she didn't trust her own memory or judgment. She'd snatched Jack's keys off his desk and was squeezing them so tightly in her left hand that her knuckles were white. Her right hand needed to stay firmly planted on the table, because before long she was leaning forward onto it.

She thought about using the safeword when she first put the keys down to rub away the tears. Crying did not seem like a terribly impressive move, and if she wasn't going to impress Jack, what was the point? But no. Jack was the experienced one here, and Gwen wanted to defer to his judgment and give him all that she had. If tears meant that she'd had enough, let _him_ decide that.

Tears did not seem to mean that she'd had enough. She wiped them away a few more times before giving in and letting them flow, and as they ran down her face and dripped from her chin onto the desk, the cane strokes continued to fall on her arse, just as hard and steady as they'd ever been. She was swearing with every other hit, but she was not going to give in. She held her ground, though she could feel her legs shaking.

The throbs were so bad that she didn't even notice when Jack stopped. She'd stopped trying to keep count somewhere around hit number twenty-five, and with no breaks and no counting, the caning had blurred together in a hazy memory of tears and pain. It wasn't until Jack touched her shoulder and said "Can I hold you?" that she realized he'd put down the cane.

She sobbed something that was meant to be a 'yes' but bore only a passing resemblance to the actual word, and he grabbed her by her shoulders—one of which was touching the desk, and she wasn't entirely clear on when and how it had started doing that—and lifted her upper body up and into his arms.

Jack's shoulder was far more comfortable to cry into than the desk, and she liked having his arms around her. It wasn't like resting in Rhys' arms. Jack was sturdier, but less comfortable. He smelled different. Not better or worse, but different. He stroked her hair, not her back, and he didn't say anything to her for the longest time, though he did shush her soothingly a few times. He just held her, supporting both of their weight and waiting for her to pull herself together while he protected her from everything bad in the world. She liked it.

And that was the thought that made her step away from him.

"I need to go," she stammered, but she couldn't think of a believable explanation for where she needed to go _to_, so she dashed into the bathroom and hid there until lunch.

She was contemplating calling off sick when she got a text that said:

_'Stay home. Talk to Rhys. I'll tell the others you're sick.'_

Gwen wasn't entirely sure she wasn't ill.

She'd _enjoyed_ that beating. That was the exact opposite of what she'd been hoping for and now she had no idea what she was going to tell Rhys or how she was going to make this work. And aside from that, her head hurt almost as badly as her arse did. She needed a fucking nap.

Gwen woke up to the sound of Rhys coming home. She crawled out of bed, hating herself for sleeping all afternoon but feeling much better for having done so, and met him in the hallway.

"You're actually home," he said, smirking slightly. Then he noticed her red face, messy hair, and smudged make-up. "Is something wrong? Did something happen?"

"No," Gwen said quickly. "Well, something _did_ happen, but it's not what you think."

"Okay," Rhys said. "So what happened?"

Gwen sighed. "Remember a week ago when I came home and I was very upset and I asked you if you'd ever hit me?"

"Of course I remember," Rhys said. "That isn't the sort of conversation you just forget." Rhys' frown got deeper. "If someone hit you, I swear I'll—"

"I asked him to," Gwen said quickly.

Rhys froze. "You what?"

"I... well..." Gwen took a deep breath. "I asked my boss to spank me. And he did. Pretty badly. I'm telling you now because you're going to see later anyway, but... but I asked him to do it, and I could have stopped him at any time and I didn't, so if you're going to be mad at someone, be mad at me. Okay? Because he didn't do anything wrong."

"I..." Rhys said. "I'm not _mad_. But, Gwen, _why_?"

"Don't know," Gwen said. "Jack had this whole long bloody explanation and he made it make sense, but I don't know."

"Jack," Rhys said. "That's his name?"

"Yeah," Gwen said, not sure where he was going with the question. 'Jack' was not exactly an uncommon name.

"You let _Jack_ hit you," Rhys said quietly. "Because _Jack_ made it make sense."

"Well..." Gwen said, "I _asked_ Jack to hit me, because he made it make sense, and because everyone else seemed to think it was good..."

"Was it good?"

"Yes," Gwen admitted. "I'd like to do it again."

Rhys got quiet. "You'd like him to hit you again?"

Gwen nodded. "And you should know, he does a lot more than that to the others, but I don't—"

"He fucks them, yeah? I know what BDSM is, Gwen."

"—But he won't fuck me. Not if I don't want him to and I won't want him to if you don't want him to!"

"I don't want him _hitting_ you!"

"Well, I'm not asking you about that, am I? What business is it of yours?!" Gwen asked. Then she didn't want to be there anymore. She pushed past Rhys and marched out the door into the rain without an umbrella or a coat. She huffed and decided to just hope that a stroll around the neighborhood would help her feel better, or at least help her sort out what she wanted. As she set off, she pulled out her mobile and sent a text to Jack: _That didn't go well._

When she was about half a mile from home with dripping wet hair and a less emotional outlook on the situation, she started to miss home. Still, she couldn't call _Rhys_ to pick her up from her tempter-tantrum, and if Jack was still at the base, it would take him twenty minutes to get to her. She could walk home in that time. Besides, he hadn't answered her last text yet. He might not even have his phone on him. (Or he might be busy with one of his... lovers? Well, with Ianto, Owen, and/or Tosh.) Gwen wasn't about to call anyone else and explain the situation to them, and she didn't have any money on her for a taxi or bus fare. She decided to suck it up and walk home.

When she got home, there was still no reply from Jack on her phone, but his van was outside of her flat.

'_What did he do?!_ Gwen wondered, half panicked and not entirely sure which 'he' she meant. She jogged to her door and opened it to find Jack and Rhys cuddled up on the sofa, staring down at a packet of papers in Rhys' hand.

"Just once," Jack was saying, "and it's actually a funny story, but it can wait because Gwen's back."

Rhys didn't look angry anymore. And Jack had certainly gotten cozy.

"Glad you're back," Jack said with a smile. "I brought cheeseburgers. Yours is in the kitchen; just pop it into the microwave. Sorry to seem cheap but I didn't want to show up empty-handed and your text sounded kind of urgent. I didn't realize you wouldn't be here when I got here, but it's fine. It gave Rhys and I a chance to talk, and I explained everything. It was easy after he stopped trying to punch me."

Gwen nodded slowly. "And what's that?" she asked, nodding to the paper in Rhys' hand.

"Largely irrelevant," Jack said, snatching it away from Rhys and putting it down on his other side. "Rhys isn't comfortable with us having sex, and your relationship with him comes first, so really, we shouldn't waste time." Jack looked at Rhys and smiled. "Right, Rhys? No sex with me?"

"Right," Rhys said.

"Good," Jack said. "Because I really don't want to break you two up," He put his hand on Rhys' knee. "And I fully understand Rhys' concern about you taking other lovers and having a sexual relationship that's entirely separate of him. That _can_ be problematic for some people. I wish we could find some compromise, some way to include Rhys, but Rhys doesn't want to have sex with me, right?"

Jack's hand was halfway up Rhys' thigh.

Rhys couldn't seem to decide on a good answer for that one. He just stared at Jack's hand, which was in very close proximity to a noticeable bulge in his trousers, and considered possibilities he had never considered before.

"I mean it," Jack said, looking from Rhys to Gwen. "I don't want to get in the way of your relationship with each other. What I _would_ like is to be a part of it, at least the sexual part of it. You're both very attractive people." He leaned in close to Rhys and whispered directly into his ear, but the room was so quiet that Gwen could hear him anyway: "Say the word and I will blow you, right here, in front of her."

"And then what?" Gwen asked, trying to keep her voice steady.

Jack shrugged. "I'm just throwing ideas out here, but then... what if I fuck you on that coffee table?"

Gwen nodded. "Alright." And then she realized that that had been a bit hasty. "I mean..." She looked over at Rhys.

Rhys took a deep breath and nodded. "Alright."

This wasn't their first threesome. They'd had one about seven months into their relationship with a friend of Gwen's. It had been fun, and as far as Gwen could tell, the only reason they hadn't done it again was because that friend had taken a job in Lancaster and no one else had offered to take her place. This was, however, their first threesome that meant something. Gwen wasn't entirely sure _what_ it meant, but it did mean something.

Jack got onto his knees on the floor, and Rhys spread his legs to make room for him, still looking a little bit like he couldn't believe he was actually doing this. Jack, for his part, looked completely comfortable as he unbuttoned Rhys' trousers and pulled Rhys' cock out of them. He ran his tongue along it slowly, savoring it and admiring its thickness.

Gwen's stomach lurched when she realized that Rhys' cock was the only one she'd seen in quite a while, and that was about to change. Jack... Was he rough with his... with people in Gwen's position? Would he be rough with her? Rhys wasn't rough. He didn't have it in him, and Gwen had always loved that about him. He could get angry and talk tough, but at the end of the day, he was a soft and comforting man. Jack was unbalancing and Gwen didn't think anything about him could really be described as soft.

Rhys moaned as Jack ran his tongue around the head of Rhys' cock, and then Jack's lips curled around Rhys' shaft and Jack took Rhys' cock into his mouth.

Rhys gasped. He was staring at the ceiling, and Gwen wondered if it had actually occurred to him yet that he was having sex with a man, for what was far as Gwen knew was the first time in his life. He really seemed to be enjoying it, at least.

Jack's fingers teased Rhys' balls as Jack's mouth continued to eagerly suck away at Rhys' shaft. Jack apparently didn't like being ignored, though. He let a long, low moan that brought Rhys' gaze down to him immediately, and they made eye contact. If Rhys hadn't realized what he was doing yet, Jack certainly wanted him to. Jack wasn't the sort of man who liked being used as a substitute for other lovers.

Rhys' hand went to Jack's hair, and for a second, Gwen worried that Rhys was going to be hit by what he was doing and push Jack way.

He didn't, though. He stared into Jack's eyes for a moment, ran a hand through Jack's hair, and stammered: "I—I'm about to—"

"Mmm-hmmm," Jack hummed, and Rhys came right into Jack's mouth. Jack swallowed every drop.

Then he stood up and smirked at Gwen. "Strip," he said in a commanding tone, and Gwen saw the moment for what it was. Now or never. She could do as he said or she could tell him to fuck off, and either way it would set the tone for the rest of their relationship.

She stripped. In her ideal world, she'd have done it slowly and sexily, but in the real world, her arms were suddenly made of lead and she just wanted to get it over with so that she could have something more stable than her legs supporting her weight. She got the job done, and the smile Jack gave her seemed to say exactly that.

"Come here," he said. She walked into his arms, and he held her for a second, kissed her on the lips and worked in a bit of tongue, and then _gently_, if that word could really be applied, set her arse down on the coffee table.

It was fine for about a second, and then she gasped and tried to stand. He'd spanked her raw just a few _hours_ ago.

"No," Jack said sternly, but he didn't lay a hand on her. "Stay."

She sat back down. The stinging was actually entirely bearable. It wasn't _comfortable_, but she could stay, if that was really what he wanted.

Rhys was watching from his seat. He was silent, but he looked interested.

Jack undressed. For the first time, Gwen found herself staring at his naked body, and she had to admit, she was impressed. He didn't give her much time to admire him, though. As soon as he was naked, he walked over to her and spread her legs. Stings were still sparking along Gwen's arse when he pushed into her cunt, but she took it all quietly, for him. It didn't take them long to get comfortable together, and then he began thrusting,

As the pleasure from Jack hitting her g-spot began to flood her senses, her abused arse rubbed on the table, mixing the sensation of pleasure with the sensation of pain. The discomfort heightened the pleasure, rather than diminishing it, and the knowledge that she was causing her own pain every time she met Jack's thrust or squirmed from pleasure. The pain got worse as the pleasure got greater, and when she finally came, she screamed Jack's name and she wasn't sure if it was in thanks or a plea for mercy. Jack came right along with her, and they held each other and panted for a few seconds before Gwen pulled back and smiled up at Jack weakly.

"Can I get up now?" she asked.

"Yes," Jack said, and he offered her his hand and helped her stand. "Let me see..." He walked around her and began to inspect the damage to her backside.

"Are you going to spank me again if it's not to your satisfaction?" Gwen asked, trying to sound casual about it.

"Naw," Jack said. "You're not in trouble. Give it a couple of days and I'm sure you'll give me cause..." He walked back around to face her. "If that's alright?"

"That's... very alright..." Gwen said. Then she looked at Rhys. "Right?"

Rhys shook himself out of whatever headspace he'd been in, and stammered, "Well... I don't think you should... I mean... wear a condom, right? Because if you..."

"Right," Jack and Gwen said.

"You're sure?" Gwen asked.

"Yeah," Rhys said. "Let's try it."

Gwen turned to Jack. "What now?"

Jack snatched up the packet of paper he'd taken away from Rhys earlier. "This is yours," he said, handing it to Gwen.

Gwen had been vaguely aware that contracts were common in this sort of relationship, but this wasn't a contract. It was more of a checklist, asking her to discuss her comfort with various activities as a basis for further discussion. It was also several _pages_ long.

"Take your time," Jack said. "Ianto had his for two weeks."

Gwen began to thumb through the list, and Rhys still didn't seem to know what to say.

Jack smiled and headed for the door. "I'm glad we had this talk!" Jack said. "Gwen, I'll see at work tomorrow! Rhys, I'll see you soon." He winked, and then he left them.


End file.
